Takehiro Tomiyasu was left shocked after being told about the knee injury to Gabriel Jesus which has ruled the Arsenal star out of the World Cup.
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Jesus faces an extended spell on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury during Brazil’s 1-0 defeat to Cameroon in their last group game last Friday.
The 25-year-old striker has now returned to London for more tests and may even require knee surgery.
Tomiyasu, meanwhile, has been preparing for Japan’s last-16 clash against Croatia on Monday and was taken aback when he learned about Jesus’ injury.
When told about Gabriel Jesus being ruled out of the World Cup, Tomiyasu told Stats Perform: ‘Jesus? I didn’t know that, really? Because I watched only the first half and he got injured in the second half?
‘Where is it, his knee? It’s a shame because obviously to play in a World Cup is a big dream for us, for every football player. ‘I’m sorry for him but hopefully he will be back soon.’
Brazil have also been forced to fire back at allegations that they played Jesus with a pre-existing injury before the match against Cameroon.
When asked if he knew of any injury to Jesus before his team’s final group game, Brazil’s manager Tite said on Sunday: ‘That’s a very good question because I don’t like hearing lies out there, evil lies.
‘Those other people want to do bad things for others. ‘At no time, whatsoever, do we play for a victory at the risk or peril of a player.
‘So the liar who’s out there, because that’s the name isn’t it? The haters, right? They keep giving hate, it gives them an opportunity, go and do something else and stop giving fake news.
‘Arsenal have a great medical department, we have a great medical department, we are responsible, we are personally responsible, we are ethical, it would never have happened.
‘I didn’t want this to happen, it’s a shame, we are very sorry for Gabriel, yesterday we had Neymar, Thiago and Marquinhos chatting with him and then chatting with Telles.
‘We then had Cesar, Cesar had experience with the Brazilian national team and he lived this, he has experience of being removed [from a squad], he has more experience than I do to chat with them. And in one way or another, I’m going to say not to take the pain away, because obviously we can’t take that pain away, but to make them feel better, to strengthen them and to be able to participate with us as much as possible.’
