Dortmund, Germany (October 3, 2018) — It’s been a rough start to the season for Christian Pulisic with a few nagging injuries hampering his ability to fully contribute for his club team, Borussia Dortmund. The latest one may prevent him from joining his national team later this month.
Ahead of the club’s Champions League fixture against French side AS Monaco on Wednesday, the Bundesliga side announced that Pulisic would miss the game due to “torn calf fibers.” The 20-year-old was one of 24 players called into the most recent USMNT camp for friendlies against Colombia (October 11) and Peru (October 16).
Christian Pulisic Likely to Miss Upcoming USMNT Friendlies Due to Calf Injury
It remains unclear as to when Pulisic sustained the injury. He came out of Saturday’s 4-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the 68th minute, but the substitution appeared to be tactical in nature rather than injury-related. As a result, the more likely scenario is that the knock occurred during training between then and now.
The timetable for recovery from this injury is uncertain due to the lack of any additional information from Dortmund. However, anything that involves a muscle tear likely involves a few weeks at the minimum for him to return to full health. As a result, it’s hard to believe that Pulisic will see the field for the Stars and Stripes during these two upcoming matches.
Despite his injury issues to start this year’s Bundesliga and Champions League campaign, Pulisic has found a way to make an impact on the field. In the club’s UCL debut against Belgian side Club Brugge, he scored the game’s only goal on his 20th birthday in Dortmund’s 1-0 victory. He also went the full 90 minutes and provided an assist in their 7-0 drubbing of Nürnburg on September 26.
Pulisic’s last appearance for his country came on May 28 in a 3-0 win over Bolivia. The match took place in his home state of Pennsylvania at Talen Energy Stadium in Philadelphia. The native of Hershey, PA went 89 minutes before being replaced by Jorge Villafaña. To date, he has a total of 21 caps for the USMNT.
