Tetsuya Naito To Undergo Another Eye Surgery Ahead Of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19

Tetsuya Naito will undergo a fourth eye surgery ahead of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19.

Naito will take on his Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemate Hiromu Takahashi at Wrestle Kingdom, with the match coming together following LIJ's win in World Tag League. Naito will be absent from NJPW's Road to Tokyo Dome shows between December 18 and December 23 while he recovers.

Naito announced he would be undergoing surgery to Tokyo Sports, saying:

"People often talk about my knees, but honestly, my eye is the bigger issue. When I look down, I see both a flat surface and a slanted one. Running in such a distorted view is challenging - I can't trust my footing, my opponent looks like two people, and I struggle with depth perception in certain environments. It's been incredibly stressful, as I can't fully focus on matches. Apparently, there's a method to align the vision of both eyes by adjusting the healthy eye to match the impaired one. This would help synchronise my overall vision. It sounded risky and made me very anxious, so I postponed it. But with the match against Hiromu now confirmed, I've decided to go through with it."

Naito has suffered from double vision and other issues with his eyes in recent years. He has undergone three eye surgeries, with the most recent surgery taking place in late 2023.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 will emanate from the Tokyo Dome on January 4. NJPW will then hold Wrestle Dynasty with AEW, CMLL and Ring of Honor on January 5.

H/T Fightful

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