USMNT star Christian Pulisic had a rough 2026 World Cup with injuries and the latest report says he will be out for several weeks and is in a race to be fit for the start of the 2026-27 season with AC Milan.
Per a report from The Athletic, Pulisic suffered a “bone bruise and microfracture of the tibia/fibula” against Belgium on Monday as the USA lost 4-1 to crash out of the World Cup at the last 16 stage. The report goes on to say that Pulisic was on crutches after the Belgium game.
The injury came in the second half as he kicked the back of Youri Tielemans’ leg as he lined up a shot on the edge of the box as the USA pushed to make it 2-2. Pulisic tried to run it off but was hobbling when the USA went 3-1 down in the 57th minute and came off soon after.
Pulisic suffered a calf injury in the first half of the USA’s opening game win against Paraguay and didn’t feature against Paraguay before playing a few minutes against Turkiye in their final group game before playing 87 minutes against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 game.
He looked electric in the first 45 minutes against Paraguay but after he returned from his calf injury he never looked the same.
Pulisic has been criticized for his post-game comments after the defeat to Belgium.
“I just totally twisted my ankle and my knee in one play,” Pulisic told reporters, via ESPN. “I mean, whatever. I have time to rest. It’s just unfortunate way to finish.”
Pulisic added the following on his tournament, where he scored one goal and added one assist, and couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“I felt really good this summer with the guys and I thought my level was high,” Pulisic said. “Yeah, it’s disappointing. I didn’t quite have the moments I was hoping to and to try to help us to really push and get over this next step of beating a really good team. I’m disappointed with myself, of course, but I’m going to try to stay positive. I did a lot of good things and the team did as well.”
All in all, Pulisic was supposed to be a star at this World Cup but injuries impacted him massively and the USA suffered massively as they lost their main attacking spark.
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