The defending champion Jeev Milkha Singh has been forced to pull himself out of the Japan Tour's Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup at Hokkaido's North Country Golf Club, as he was unable to recover from the rib injury due to which he missed the British Open last month.

Jeev has decided to continue his rehabilitation process for recovering from the inter-costal muscle injury to make comeback in the upcoming PGA Tour's WGC Championship in Akron Ohio, which will be played in August.

Jeev said that he loves to play in Japan, and he has been upset to not be able to defend his title as he wants firstly to recover from the rib injury.

He added that it has been better to take strict and harsh decision rather than to continue playing with the injury as the injury may become even more painful for them.

Jeev, who won 130,000,000-yen tournament last year, will also be looking toward the last Major of the year with prize money of US$8,500,000, which will be played just after the end of WGC Championship.