Christian Pulisic was included in Gregg Berhalter’s 26-player roster for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s September World Cup Qualifying slate, but it is still undetermined if the star playmaker can feature in all three matches.
The status of Christian Pulisic still uncertain for USMNT WCQ matches
Pulisic was released from his 10-day quarantine period on Saturday at Chelsea, but will only travel for international duty if he can provide a negative test, Thomas Tuchel confirmed following the club’s 1-1 draw at Liverpool. The USMNT star would be a major loss for the Americans ahead of matches against El Salvador, Canada, and Honduras, but is fighting to be back at full fitness for the September 2nd opener in San Salvador.
Berhalter and Tuchel aren’t giving Pulisic the green light just yet, but he could be back in action shortly.
“Pulisic is released today [from quarantine] and will go to the national team if he can provide a negative test,” Tuchel said. “We hope he can play some minutes.”
“Regarding Christian it’s going to be day to day just seeing where he’s at,” Berhalter said on Thursday in a conference call. He’s still under quarantine conditions in England and we’re going to have to get him stateside once he clears the quarantine and assess him. It’s really too early to tell if he’ll be available for September 2, for the fifth, or for the eighth. We just don’t know right now. It’s going to be a wait and see kind of thing.”
Pulisic scored on the opening day of the new EPL season, helping Chelsea to a 3-0 win over London rivals Crystal Palace. His positive test forced him to miss out in last weekend’s 2-0 road win over Arsenal and also saw him miss out in Chelsea’s draw at Anfield this weekend.
The 22-year-old is racing against the clock to get test negative for involvement in the USMNT’s next slate of competitive matches this calendar year and his absence would force other players to step up. Gio Reyna and Brenden Aaronson are the likely candidates to replace Pulisic in the starting lineup if he is unable to feature for his country, both whom made their international debuts in 2020.
For now Berhalter will have to wait and see if his star man is able to feature, but if he cannot play, it would be a major loss for a USMNT roster which is already without attacking options in Gyasi Zardes, Daryl Dike, Paul Arriola, and Yunus Musah.
“There are a lot of things that need to happen before that for him to actually get on the plane,” Berhalter said.
“Let’s be clear. This is a Covid situation and there’s a lot of tests that he needs to go through before he arrives. Even then, everyone handles it differently, everyone responds to it differently, everyone recovers from it differently. That’s the process we’re looking at.”
Photo Credit: John A. Babiak @Photog_JohnB
