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Injury may have ended Shinji Okazaki’s chance of featuring in a third World Cup.

The Leicester City striker has missed three days of training with a sore calf sustained in Japan’s 4-2 win over Paraguay in the build up to the tournament in Russia.

The Japanese FA have denied reports that Okazaki has been replaced in the Samurai Blue’s 23-man squad with Arsenal’s Takuma Asano, but the 32-year-old is struggling for fitness and will almost certainly miss Tuesday’s opener against Colombia.

If Okazaki cannot recover in time for Japan’s other Group H matches, against Senegal and Poland, it will be a cruel blow for the City forward, who had to battle hard to land a place in Russia.

Okazaki led the line for Japan in 2010 and 2014 but seemed unlikely to feature at the 2018 tournament after former coach Vahid Halilhodzic had a clear-out of the nation’s older players.

Halilhodzic was replaced by Akira Nishino and Okazaki was recalled, but his World Cup participation is now in doubt.