Fukuoka Softbank's Kazumi Saito, who is the Pacific League club's rehabilitation coach, said Monday he has given up on coming back from right-shoulder surgery and will leave the team at the end of the month.

The two-time Sawamura Award winner, whose final mound appearance was in the first stage of the Climax Series against the Chiba Lotte Marines on Oct. 8, 2007, had been prepared to end his career if he did not make the 70-man roster before the July 31 deadline.

"I tried to stay hopeful over the past two months, but I felt, this month in particular, that I reached my wit's end," said the 35-year-old Saito. "I am disappointed. That's all I feel, actually."