NJPW announces Naito will miss rest of G1 Climax 31 due to knee injury

Tetsuya Naito will miss the remainder of the G1 Climax tournament.

New Japan announced on their website that Naito would be missing the rest of the G1 due to a knee injury suffered during his first G1 mach on Sept. 18 against Zack Sabre Jr. New Japan stated that Naito sustained damaged to his left meniscus and MCL during his match against Sabre.

As a result of Naito’s injury, Naito will forfeit the rest of his matches with each match counting as a loss. Each of his remaining opponents will all be awarded two points. The company mentioned there is no timetable for Naito’s return to in-ring action.

Naito’s remaining opponents will now wrestle in special singles matches for the duration of the tournament. Wrestlers currently not in the tournament will wrestle members of the A block on the nights they were scheduled to wrestle Naito.

The schedule for those matches is as follows:

• September 23 (G1 Climax 31: Night 3: Tanga Loa vs. Yuji Nagata
• September 26: G1 Climax 31: Night 5): Shingo Takagi vs. Yuji Nagata
• September 30: G1 Climax 31: Night 7): Yujiro Takahashi vs. Bushi
• October 3: G1 Climax 31: Night 9: Toru Yano vs. Bushi
• October 7: G1 Climax 31: Night 11): Kenta vs. Hiromu Takahashi
• October 9: G1 Climax 31: Night 13): Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hiromu Takahashi
• October 13: G1 Climax 31: Night 15): Kota Ibushi vs. Satoshi Kojima
• October 18: G1 Climax 31: Night 17): The Great-O-Khan vs. Satoshi Kojima