Sareee Offers Neck Injury Update, May Be Replaced In AEW Dynamite Tournament Match

The annual Owen Hart Foundation Cup tournament is well underway, but has had some setbacks on the women's side. When the brackets were first announced, Persephone was waiting to be cleared from being misted in the eye (in reality, it was due to a legitimate injury). Willow Nightingale announced that she had a shoulder injury and not only had to forfeit the tournament, but also had to vacate the TBS Championship. Meanwhile, Sareee announced that she was having some issues with her neck, and a new interview suggests she may not be cleared to compete.

Sareee is scheduled to face Skye Blue in the final match of the first round on this week's "AEW Dynamite." F4W translated an interview with Sareee from Tokyo Sports in which she admits that "I'm not yet in a state where my neck is in perfect shape for my comeback in America." Her tag team partner, Takumi Iroha, is accompanying her to the U.S. and Sareee revealed she has permission from AEW that if she can't compete, Iroha will take her place in the tournament. "If anything happens to me, she'll come in as a pinch hitter."

Masahiro Chono, who was conducting the interview, said he doesn't believe Sareee should compete.

"I don't recommend you step into the ring," he said. "There's still more than ten years left to do after this. If things go wrong, you might end up missing a long game or suffering a serious injury...don't rush, right?"

As of Tuesday, Sareee is still being advertised to face Skye Blue on "Dynamite: Summer Blockbuster".