Five-time world champion Ryoko Tamura is looking into having surgery on her right knee and right elbow, the head of the Japanese women's national team revealed Tuesday.
Kazuo Yoshimura said that Tamura contacted him a week after last month's weight-category national championships and indicated that she wanted to have surgery on her knee and elbow.
"I don't want to see it end like this for Tamura. I hope that she will keep this feeling as she heads into a positive direction," Yoshimura said.
Tamura fell to high school student Tomoko Fukumi in the first round of the national championships at 48 kg for her first loss to a Japanese opponent in 12 years.
Tamura originally damaged the ligaments in her right knee prior to the World Championships in Munich, Germany last July.
In spite of the injured knee, Tamura won her fifth straight world title.