IRVINE, Calif. – From not worrying day by day until there is still time, the US men’s national team texting Christian Pulisic’s left calf injury has seemed more hopeless by the day.
“He’s been taking it day by day,” Antonee “Jedi” Robinson said before Pulisic’s third straight day of training on Wednesday. “He has not trained fully with the team, we still have a few days to check where he is.
“Thankfully we have a lot of guys on the bench who are willing and ready to get involved and help the team, the level is very high. It’s a long tournament. If we can’t find him in the game, we’ll make sure we bring him back early because we’ll need him, because we’ll need everyone but I hope everyone is good and ready to come in.”
As the USMNT warmed up on Wednesday, Pulisic was spotted working out in a tented gym near the stadium. A few minutes before the reporters were taken out of the tests, he entered the field with the coach and started passing the ball around. A sleeve was seen on his injured left calf.
A U.S. Soccer spokesperson went on to say that Pulisic was day-to-day and in modified training.
It’s worth noting here that there are no injury disclosure rules at the World Cup, and there’s no real reason for anyone on the national team to tell the truth in a situation like this.
There is a long history of international soccer teams lying about injuries, including the USMNT, which declared striker Jozy Altidore fit to go before a 2014 Round of 16 match against Belgium, only to reveal after the tournament that he had torn a grade 2 hamstring.
So everything here, whether it sounds good or bad, should be taken with a grain of salt, and with the understanding that the target audience is an Australian group whose preparation will be affected based on the information made available.
At the very least, however, it is becoming difficult to believe that Pulisic will be available for the full 90 minutes against Australia on Friday – not least because, barring injury, he has not played a full game since March 26.
“Listen, we really hope Christian comes back in the game,” quarterback Brenden Aaronson said. “I don’t know what’s going on specifically. We know he’s going to do everything he can to get back in the team and be there for the game, so we’ll see. We’re very excited and we’ll see what the deal is.”
Aaronson, who did not feature in Paraguay’s 4-1 win, could have a chance to play a bigger role if Pulisic is unable to play.
When Pulisic came off Sebastian Berhalter at halftime on Friday, Malik Tillman – who was playing in the center with Tyler Adams – moved up to Pulisic’s place as a left attacking midfielder while Berhalter moved in next to Adams. Aaronson, Gio Reyna and Alex Zendejas are among the other options to play Pulisic’s regular role.
Berhalter and Cristian Roldan would be the obvious choices to start when Tillman meets Paraguay should he play an attacking role, although Mauricio Pochettino mentioned Reyna, Alex Freeman and Sergiño Dest as possible options back when the line-up was announced.
Pulisic’s talent on the ball and 1-on-1 ability, however, is something the USMNT will not be able to replicate. No one else on the roster can do what he does, and the Americans are the least offensively threatening team without him.
“I feel like we were still threatening and creating opportunities [once he came off],” said Robinson.” “We just didn’t convert them. We could have scored more goals in that game, until Gio scored at the end. We have a lot of people who are ready to step up and help the team, which is good.”
