‘Special’ Liverpool player pulls out of international duty with mysterious injury after Chelsea cameo

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The October international break comes at a good time for Liverpool this year, with the Reds in atypically dire form.

Fans are usually disappointed when the national team fixtures come around, instead preferring to watch their team pick up points in the Premier League and Champions League.

After seeing Liverpool lose three games on the bounce, though, supporters will be pleased simply to have something else to focus on.

For the Liverpool squad, it will also be a welcome break. Losing can quickly become a bad habit, and a change of environment will hopefully give many of them the reset they clearly need.

However, it is not all positive regarding the international break. There is always the threat of injury hanging over any player who goes away.

Unfortunately for Liverpool, the international break injury curse appears to have struck again, with Wataru Endo failing to report for duty with Japan.

Wataru Endo picks up injury ahead of Japan duty

Endo has been deemed ‘special’ by Arne Slot having become a relentlessly popular figure at Liverpool since his arrival in the summer of 2023.

However, his entrance onto the pitch at Stamford Bridge on Saturday was greeted with much less enthusiasm by supporters.

READ MORE: Danny Murphy claims Arne Slot is giving one instruction which has ‘become a problem’ for Liverpool

Fans wanted to see a positive substitution, with Federico Chiesa perhaps coming on to replace Cody Gakpo. Instead, Endo came on.

While it was understandable that Slot wanted to protect a point, it ended up having the opposite effect. Endo failed to track Marc Cucurella, who slid across for Estevao Willian to score.

It was an uncharacteristically sloppy moment from Endo, but there may now have been an explanation for his error.

As per an official statement from the Japanese national team, they will be without the Liverpool midfielder for their upcoming matches against Paraguay and Brazil. An unspecified injury is the reason for his absence.

What injury has Endo picked up?

Given there is no further information from the Japan camp, it is currently unknown what issue Endo has picked up.

The 32-year-old was on the pitch for Liverpool only two days ago and did not appear to be struggling physically.

As a result, his pulling out of international duty does appear somewhat mysterious.

Endo will not have trained after the Chelsea match, so his issue must have been formed in the limited minutes he spent on the pitch at Stamford Bridge.

Given the No. 3 finished the match, it is perhaps unlikely that the injury will be serious. But that it has been enough to force the Japan captain to pull out of representing his country is a worry nonetheless.