One Liverpool player has provided his national team with a significant boost ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Despite not playing for his club since tearing ankle ligaments in the Reds’ 1-0 win at Sunderland in mid-February, Wataru Endo – previously hailed by Arne Slot for his ‘unbelievable‘ mentality – was named in the Japan squad for the upcoming tournament in North America.
The 33-year-old – who captains his country – was an unused substitute in our season-ending 1-1 draw against Brentford last weekend, but he made his comeback to action for the Blue Samurai on Sunday as they beat Iceland 1-0 in a warm-up friendly in Tokyo ahead of the World Cup.
The Liverpool midfielder started for Hajime Moriyasu’s side and played the first half of the match before being substituted at the interval.
Despite being Japan’s lowest-rated player according to Sofascore metrics, the Reds’ number 3 won a couple of his duels and completed 37 of his 44 passes (84% success) in his first taste of matchday action for nearly four months.
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Kopites will be delighted to see Endo getting back on the pitch after such a lengthy absence, and his 45-minute involvement against Iceland will come as a huge boost to his country just two weeks out from their opening World Cup fixture against Netherlands.
His status as captain underlines how important he is to the Blue Samurai, and coming through today’s match unscathed should give him an extra few days to further build up his fitness once the team lands in North America for the tournament.
He’ll have plenty of insider knowledge on three of his opponents in Japan’s first game at the finals, having trained and played alongside Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo for the past three years at Liverpool.
In what’ll be his third inclusion for a World Cup (although he didn’t play in 2018), Endo will hope to lead his nation as deep into the competition as possible and play a central role (literally and figuratively) in their endeavours.
From a Reds perspective, hopefully he can enjoy a positive tournament and come back to Merseyside revitalised and raring to go for next season after having a large chunk of his 2025/26 campaign curtailed by injury.
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Good luck to him for the world cup, but he’s another one of the deadwood at Liverpool football club that needs to be moved on. Too lightweight. Jones is another, so is Gomez. What will Iraola want to do with frimpong and wirtz and Isak. There’s no doubt that Iraola will bring with him a few players from Bournemouth, and his coaching staff. It always happens.
Iraola will also find out it’s much harder having to take the game to opponents rather than just sitting deep and playing on the counter. Counter attacking football will only get you so far.
Lots of big decisions ahead for the new Liverpool manager, it will be announced very soon. 1 can he sort out the defence 2 can he improve the midfield / where does wirtz play 3 can he handle the pressure 4 will he get the money from FSG 5 can he win the league
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