Wakatakakage Will Compete in Kyushu After Leg Surgery
Wakatakakage, 31, who sat out the Nagoya and Aki tournaments, will compete in the Kyushu basho, which opens November 8 at Fukuoka Kokusai Center. His stablemaster, Arashio Oyakata (former maegashira Sokokurai), said after practice on the 4th, "I just talked with him, and it's been decided he'll compete." He has dropped to West Juryo 5.
Wakatakakage won his second championship as a komusubi in May, but had emergency surgery on his left leg for compartment syndrome just before the July tournament. According to his stablemaster, a delay of another hour and a half to two hours in the first treatment could have meant amputation, and continued bleeding led to four major operations in all. Since arriving in Fukuoka he has been practicing with sekitori.