While organizers are adamant the Tokyo Olympics will proceed as scheduled, postponement of the event due to the coronavirus pandemic could end the Olympic dream for several of Japan's talented crop of men's soccer players.
The Olympic men's soccer tournament is contested by under-23 sides with a limited number of overage players, but it is unclear whether the age cutoff would be shifted should the games be postponed by a year, as some predict.
Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu is concerned postponement until 2021 would force several players born in 1997 — such as Groningen's Ko Itakura and Maritimo's Daizen Maeda — to compete for the three overage slots allocated to each team.