Where the hell is Phoenix clearly he slept on this article
Nagaoka has a new interview (published 12/23) for Real Sports which is part of Nikkan Sports and boy is it gloomier than ever. I was pretty gutted to read this. It doesn't sound like she's motivated or possibly just ...fearful.
What I google translated is that she's not sure she'll reach a certain point where she can be great again. Her movements are very limited and she always fears that the ball could hit her left knee.
During the Hinotori remote match she was at 50% then during V.League 1st Leg she was at 70% (except she wavers on this). There's also a part about how expectations have become unbearable for her. The whole Olympics thing is still up in the air and she diverts to a topic about being satisfied just playing VB in front of her family again especially her older sister who was the reason she started playing VB.
Let's not forget how Ebata said that people kept telling her to just go with the flow and enjoy volleyball but Ebata says once you're at a certain caliber, you can't just have "fun" because people will always have their expectations and reputation is everything. It's similar to what Nagaoka says in this interview.
sidenote: I couldn't access this on my pc, it took forever to load so I suggest viewing it on your phone
https://real-sports.jp/page/articles/471510286004651049