New ozeki Kirishima will take to the raised ring at the ongoing Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament from the fourth day of action on Wednesday after missing three bouts due to bruised right ribs, his stablemaster Michinoku said.
The 27-year-old initially withdrew from the 15-day meet at Dolphins Arena ahead of his opening-day bout on Sunday, reporting to the Japan Sumo Association he had been diagnosed that it would take three weeks to recover. But Michinoku said Tuesday his wrestler "wants to take part."
Kirishima trained at his stable on Tuesday morning with part of his neck, shoulder and back taped up and received treatment after the session.
"I'll give all I have to wrestle each day's bout in my style, while focusing on not getting hurt again," Kirishima said.
"I'd take time off if it was really bad, but it's got a bit better. Part of me wanted to take part on the first day too. I have the fans' support and resting too much isn't good."
Michinoku, who advised Kirishima to pull out on Sunday, said the "strong will" of the wrestler was behind the latest decision.
"His ability to recover is astonishingly fast," said the stablemaster, a former ozeki himself who ahead of the meet handed his old ring name to the Mongolian-born wrestler, previously known as Kiribayama.
"He can't put in weak performances. There's a responsibility attached to ozeki. I hope he aims for a winning record and is ready to beat three sekiwake," added Michinoku in reference to Daieisho, Wakamotoharu and Hoshoryu, who are all after a good record in Nagoya to seal ozeki promotion themselves.
Kirishima sealed his promotion to the second-highest rank of ozeki after recording an 11-4 record during the Summer meet in May. He tallied one more than the benchmark 33 wins over three straight meets wrestling as sekiwake or komusubi.
Failure to win eight of his 12 bouts in Nagoya will see Kirishima wrestling as a demotion-threatened "kadoban" ozeki at the Autumn meet in September, when he will need to reach that mark to avoid losing his ozeki status.
Kirishima was the first wrestler to pull out on the very day of an ozeki debut since the Showa era began in 1926.
Related coverage:
Sumo: New ozeki Kirishima pulls out ahead of Nagoya meet's 1st day
Sumo: No. 1 maegashira Nishikigi stuns yokozuna Terunofuji on 2nd day
Sumo: Terunofuji, 3 promotion-chasing sekiwake start with wins
