The 33-year-old has recovered from the foot injury he sustained with Liverpool in February and was named in his nation’s squad for the tournament in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
He returned to the Reds’ matchday 20 this past Sunday for the season-concluder with Brentford at Anfield.
Endo was a guest on the latest episode of FIFPRO’s Footballers Unfiltered and was quizzed on a range of topics – read on for the best bits from it.
On the World Cup…
The Japan team, as players, feel like we can do something or we can achieve something or we could surprise the people in the world. The World Cup is always tough to play and every team is a really, really good team and every country are very ready for the World Cup. It’s going to be a very tough group stage but we need to play with a confidence.
On being in the same group as the Netherlands and Alexander Isak’s Sweden…
Cody Gakpo, before the draw we had a competition, like, ‘Maybe we are [in] the same group’ or something like that. That happened actually. I spoke with Cody. We have also got Virg [van Dijk], Jeremie Frimpong and Ryan Gravenberch as well, so we have so many Netherlands players at Liverpool at the moment. I’m so excited to play against them.
On his mindset…
It’s a difficult moment for me because I haven’t played a lot of games this season and also last season as well. But I think the most important thing is to be ready for every game. Even if you play only five or 10 minutes, you have to play well on the pitch. So, that’s what I tried [in] the last few seasons. I feel like I get a little bit older because I’m already 33 years old and I don’t play a lot of games, but I still feel like I can play every game for Liverpool or something like that. So, I think to stay positive is also important for me to achieve something.
