New Japan Wrestling made a huge announcement on Friday that Hiroshi Tanahashi has been removed from their Yamaguchi card and that he will no longer wrestle during their World Tag League tour, which comes to an end on Dec 11, 2017, in Fukuoka.

The announcement was made after Tanahashi suffered an injury to his right knee during a match on Wednesday.

New Japan Wrestling has apologized to their fans for Tanahashi not being available to wrestle. They also stated that they aren't able to release any details on his injured knee and that he's still undergoing a medical analysis.

New Japan Pro Wrestling also stated that Tanahashi's injury will affect other cards on the tour.

Unfortunately for Tanahashi, he's been dealing with knee, neck, shoulder and biceps injuries over the past few years.

Dave Melzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentioned that Tanahashi underwent an MRI on his knee in order to see if he had suffered a torn meniscus, which he has in the past. But he was told he has arthritis and water in the knee.

 

Via Sports Illustrated

Tanahashi is currently New Japan Wrestling's Intercontinental Champion and is scheduled to defend his title on Jan. 4, 2018, against Jay White at the Tokyo Dome. Hopefully, his knee injury isn't serious and he'll be good to go for his match against White.

The 41-year-old Tanahashi has been working with New Japan Pro Wrestling since he started his pro career back in 1999. When Tanahashi attended Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, he started wrestling and was first noticed by New Japan Wrestling and was then invited to an NJPW Dojo.

It wasn't until 2003 that Tanahashi started to become a star in New Japan Wrestling. While he's mostly spent his career with NJPW, he also dipped his foot in American wrestling with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in January of 2006.

During his first TNA match, Tanahashi was defeated by AJ Styles at Final Resolution.  He then wrestled Roderick Strong shortly after and then didn't return until 2008. He participated in some more matches but then decided to cancel the rest of his dates with TNA, in order to return to NJPW on a full-time basis.

Tanahashi won numerous titles with NJPW. He captured the IWGP Heavyweight Championship seven times, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship twice, the IWGP Tag Team Championship twice, and the IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship twice.