Yokozuna Onosato and Ukrainian-born ozeki Aonishiki have withdrawn from the upcoming Summer Grand Sumo Tournament, it was confirmed Friday after neither was named in the list of bouts for the first two days of the 15-day meet.
Onosato was diagnosed with rotator cuff damage in his left shoulder that requires a month to recover, having battled pain in the same part of the body since injuring it late in November’s Kyushu meet. The grand champion slumped to a 0-4 record with 11 missed days at the Spring meet in March.
“He still has pain, and his physical condition wasn’t really improving,” his stablemaster Nishonoseki, former yokozuna Kisenosato, said. “I hope he takes a good look at himself and makes this an opportunity to grow.”
Hoshoryu is set to be the sole yokozuna fighting at the summer meet, starting Sunday at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, with 25-year-old Onosato all but certain to miss an entire tournament for the first time since his professional sumo debut in May 2023.
Aonishiki, who posted a 7-8 losing record in March and is a demotion-threatened kadoban ozeki this month, suffered a blow on Wednesday when he hurt his left ankle during a training session.
The 22-year-old dynamo will drop to the third-highest rank of sekiwake unless he enters the meet this month and gets a winning record with eight or more wins.
“He’s planning to take part once the pain subsides,” said his stablemaster Ajigawa, former sekiwake Aminishiki. “I spoke to him this morning and he said he was ‘barely walking.’ It’s both a mental and physical issue.”
Aonishiki marked his record-fastest ozeki promotion at the New Year meet in January by winning back-to-back top-tier championships but suffered an unexpected losing record in March — when yokozuna promotion was a possibility — after breaking his left little toe.