By Glenn Carter, KureArsenal.com

June 27, 2018

Call it bad luck or chalk it up to “one of those years”; but the fact remains, the Kure Arsenal have been plagued by injuries since the LRS bell rang in early April. However, none would seem to be as crushing as yesterday’s blow as star pitcher Akihito Ichihara went down with a torn back muscle that will likely sideline him for the rest of the 2018 season.

“I just felt a sharp pain when it happened. I knew there was something wrong,” he told reporters at the team’s complex early this morning. While Ichihara was walking around the team’s clubhouse under his own power, he is clearly not about to sashay across the dance floor like the fresh faced rookie that earned the nickname “Snake Hips” way back in 2009. “No, unfortunately I won’t be dancing for awhile,” says Ichihara. “Not even if you started blasting `I Gotta Feeling‘ in this locker room right now.”

When asked by a reporter if he’d “danced his final number in Kure,” he politely declined to answer, choosing not to delve into rumors of his impending free agency, saying he was focused on getting back with Kure before the end of the season. However, team doctors estimate Ichihara will be looking at 4 to 5 months of recovery, which would rule him out of any sort of return save a Kure run to the Neo-Tokyo Cup.

“I don’t want things to end like this. I want to be back in Kure,” he says, “for the end of 2018 and beyond. This is my only home in the LRS. This is where my career started and this is where I want to end it. And I don’t want it to end like this.”

When asked if he’d consider a move to the greener pastures of PEBA as many have suspected, Ichihara again declined to comment. Following the completion of a 4-year contract extension worth $25.5 million Kure management took advantage of the league’s Juuki designation and re-uped the 32-year-old for $7.5 million. According to sources close to Ichihara the pitcher was irate with the designation and has been planning to move on, regardless of what Kure offers. Ichihara flatly denied the concept. For his part he is off to a career worst start to the 2018 season posting a 3-3 record and a 5.76 ERA through 50 innings, suggesting there might be more going on behind the scenes.

“He is Kure,” says Tomiji Watanabe, the Arsenal member with the second longest tenure with the team having joined two years after Ichihara, “It’s hard to imagine this locker room without him in it.” When asked if he was referring to the 2018 season or beyond that, Watanabe snapped “Now. I’m talking about right now,” then quickly zipped his bag and walking out the door.

Ichihara told reporters he will rehab in Kure at the team’s complex following two weeks of rest. “They don’t even want me to walk around for the next couple weeks,” he says, “They told me to stay in bed and not do much of anything. Then they’ll check me again, and if things go well, I can start doing some light work after that.”