It’s been over 13 months since Hiromu Takahashi was injured during last summer’s G1 Special in San Fransisco. Takahashi was wrestling his long-time rival Dragon Lee on the show but was injured during a cradle-suplex. He finished the match, defeated his rival, but collapsed backstage and was taken to hospital.

It was later reported that Takahashi had suffered a broken neck and would be out of action for a year. His injury status was addressed recently on Wrestling Observer Radio.

“I’d been told he would be ready late summer,” said Dave Meltzer. “And I hear that he is doing real well. I don’t know when he’s coming back but he is coming back at some point. The only thing that I was kind of told is they want it to be real big.”

Takahashi has not been announced for the upcoming Super J-Cup or NJPW’s end of summer show in London, Royal Quest.

Takahashi couldn’t have been riding higher in NJPW’s junior heavyweight division at the time of his injury. He had just won the Best of the Super Juniors that spring and then defeated Will Ospreay for the Junior Heavyweight title at Dominion the month prior.

Takahashi was ranked #27 in the PWI Top-500 rankings for 2018.