Christian Pulisic is stepping up his return from injury, but he won’t be ready for Saturday’s Premier League title clash between Chelsea and Manchester City, as Thomas Tuchel has confirmed the USMNT star’s ankle injury is not yet fully recovered.
“Christian Pulisic is still out,” Tuchel said during his pre-match press conference on Friday.
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There is some positive news about his recovery, though, as the Chelsea winger missed the win at Tottenham but after that victory, Thomas Tuchel provided an update to ProSoccerTalk.
Pulisic, 23, suffered an ankle injury in the USMNT’s 4-1 win at Honduras on Sept. 9 and has been out since.
But Chelsea hope to have him back very soon.
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What is the latest Christian Pulisic injury update?
Asked by ProSoccerTalk about a possible timeline for Pulisic’s return, Tuchel said that the League Cup game against Aston Villa on Wednesday would come too soon for Pulisic.
Tuchel added that Pulisic is working hard at Chelsea’s training ground today (Sunday), and his fitness status depends on how that session went.
“I think for Christian the game against Aston Villa [in the Carabao Cup in midweek] is maybe a bit too close,” Tuchel said. “I hope that I’m wrong but this is my impression. He’s not in training so far but let’s see tomorrow. Maybe if he had a good progression today, maybe it’s possible. It would be super nice for us to have him but for me it’s a bit doubtful.”
It seems like the huge Premier League clash against Manchester City on Saturday, Sept. 25 is when we could next see Pulisic, at the earliest. Chelsea then travel to Juventus on Wednesday, Sept. 29 in a massive UEFA Champions League clash, as Pulisic will hope to take on his good friend and USMNT teammate Weston McKennie.
Check out the full video above of Tuchel speaking to us post-game.
What has been going on with Pulisic this season?
The Pennsylvanian winger had only just returned from a spell out due to testing positive for COVID-19 as he then had to work his way back to full fitness.
Pulisic started the 2021-22 domestic season well, as he scored a penalty kick in Chelsea’s UEFA Super Cup final win and scored in the opening day win against Crystal Palace.
However, as has been the case for much of his young career, injuries have hampered his fast start to the new season and he hasn’t played for the Blues in over a month.
Good news for USMNT
Whenever Pulisic returns for Chelsea, it is pretty clear that he will be fit to play in their World Cup qualifiers in October.
That is, obviously, great news for Gregg Berhalter. The USMNT face Jamaica, Panama and Costa Rica in October and they look like being pivotal clashes as the latter two nations have started well in qualifying.
Pulisic wore the captains armband in two of the USMNT’s three World Cup qualifiers last month (he only played in two after missing the game at El Salvador) and is clearly the talisman for the Stars and Stripes.
Even a 75 percent fit Pulisic has to start for the USMNT.
Christian Pulisic out again this weekend originally appeared on NBCSports.com