Leeds United's Yosuke Ideguchi axed from Japan World Cup squad

The 21-year-old stepped off the bench for Akira Nishino's side in the closing stages of their 2-0 defeat to Ghana on Wednesday but has missed out on the final squad due to a lack of playing time in recent months.

The midfielder found minutes hard to come by at club level for Cultural Leonesa despite United believing he had a better chance of making this summer's tournament with a six-month spell in Spain..

Having not featured for the first-team since February, Ideguchi was left out of his countries friendlies against Mali and Ukraine by former boss Vahid Halilhodzic in March but looked to have been given hope by new man at the helm Nishino after being named in the preliminary squad for the quadrennial tournament.

The Japanese star though has missed out on a spot to Russia which leaves Swedish central defender Pontus Jansson as the only Leeds representative at the World Cup when it begins on June 14.