IRVINE, Calif. – U.S. men’s national team star Christian Pulisic trained individually on Monday, but the player is still on course to be available for selection for Friday’s World Cup group stage against Australia despite coming off early in their tournament opener against Paraguay.
Pulisic was seen working in the gym near the training pitches at Great Park, the USMNT‘s base camp during the World Cup. He did not train with the group as a whole, though it is not unusual for someone who is dealing with a precautionary issue.
Christian Pulisic
USA • M • #10
Pulisic exited the opening game at halftime when the team was up 3-0, as a precautionary measure. Midfielder Tyler Adams downplayed the issue on Monday shortly before their first training session after their decisive 4-1 win over Paraguay at SoFi Stadium.
“Christian will be ready, everyone,” Adams said. “Let’s relax. I think that he picked up a knock a few days before the game and I think he got kicked in the same space again during the game and when you’re going in at halftime, things obviously get tight within the 15, 20-minute break but he’ll be fine.”
Adams’ comments echoed Pulisic’s own recollection of events about the issue in his left calf, which he shared shortly after the win against Paraguay. The player also gestured towards his family just before the second half that he was okay as they watched him walk over to the bench instead of return to the pitch with the starters.
“I just got a bit of a kick in the first half, so I’m really hoping that it’s nothing,” he said. “I’m taking a little bit of precautions today, but I’m hoping I’ll be fine in the next few days.”
The U.S. team – and the others at the World Cup – will benefit from having extra time in between games, a new scheduling feature for the expanded 48-team tournament. Instead of having three or four days in between games, teams now have roughly a week’s time in between group stage matches, very similar to the cadence of a regular club season. It allows players enough time to recover from the physical demands of a game in time for the next one, off time of equal measure for players dealing with fitness issues and those who are not.
In the USMNT’s case, the substitutes from the win over Paraguay trained in full the day after the game on Saturday but all players got the day off on Sunday.
“I absolutely love it after playing a long season, you know what I mean?” Adams said. “I think in the last World Cup it’s not even comparable because you’re in the middle of your seasons, you’ve only played 15, 17 games before a World Cup. You’re fully fresh and ready to go whereas now, I think that your body feels it, obviously, a little bit more coming into the end of the season [and] into a World Cup where there’s so much emotion, so much adrenaline, all these things. I think it’s nice.”
