Christian Pulisic returned to training with his U.S. teammates on Monday after missing their most recent match of the World Cup with a calf injury.
Pulisic participated in warmups and ball drills during the 15 minutes of practice open to the media in Orange County. The team gave no formal update on the status of the AC Milan midfielder, who has been limited to one dynamic half of play in the unbeaten Americans’ home World Cup.
Pulisic didn’t play in the Americans’ 2-0 victory over Australia in Seattle last Friday. He played the first half of their tournament-opening victory over Paraguay, catalyzing two of the U.S. team’s three goals in the first half of a historic 4-1 win before coming off at halftime with stiffness from an injury incurred the previous week in training.
Pulisic trained apart from his teammates during the workouts between the first two games, so his return to the full squad was obviously encouraging. He had been limited to gym workouts, resistance training and light ball work during his absence.
“It’s a tough situation when you’re going through a small, little knock,” U.S. teammate Alex Zendejas said Monday. “It’s an important tournament where obviously everyone wants to be able to get out there 100%, but [we don’t] discuss concerning the harm or discuss concerning the second [Pulisic] goes via. [We] speak about different stuff, attempt to get his thoughts off of it. Simply be there for him.”
The U.S. finishes group play on Thursday evening at SoFi Stadium in opposition to Turkey in a meaningless sport for the group-winning People and the already-eliminated Turks.
The People’ first knockout match is on July 1 in Santa Clara, California.
U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino nonetheless didn’t have his whole roster on the sphere at Nice Park. Midfielder Cristian Roldan missed follow with a strained muscle.
Reporting by The Related Press.
