Tetsuya Naito suffers knee injury, out of NJPW G1 Climax tournament

Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/09/21/tetsuya-naito-suffers-knee-injury-out-of-njpw-g1-climax-tournament/

Tetsuya Naito to miss the remainder of the G1.

To kick off the beginning stages of the 2021 G1 Climax tournament, Tetsuya Naito took on Zack Sabre Jr. on 9/18. It was during that match that Naito suffered a knee injury and New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that Naito will miss the remainder of the G1 Climax due to the injury.

Naito’s meniscus and MCL in his left knee were injured. It is noted in the article that there is no timetable for his return. All of Naito’s remaining matches in the tournament are going to be counted as forfeits and his scheduled opponents will receive two points.

The talents that were scheduled to take on Naito in the G1 will compete in singles matches instead that will not have an effect on their G1 standing.

Tetsuya Naito suffers left knee injury, to withdraw from G1 Climax 31 competition. https://t.co/LNkhYmEhNN#njpw #G131 pic.twitter.com/O8gSbkGhyM

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) September 21, 2021

The G1 resumes on 9/23. POST Wrestling has written and audio coverage of the tournament that can all be found at this link.

Terrible news about Naito. I’ve noticed his knees taped up for years.

This is going to do a number on the contest too.

Only silver lining I see is that other wrestlers like Hiromu Takahashi will have additional matches on the tour.