Christian Pulisic remains out for Premier League side Chelsea with the Blues set to face Tottenham in a must-win London Derby on Saturday.
Pulisic has not featured for Frank Lampard’s side since a 1-1 New Years Day road draw at Brighton & Hove Albion. The 21-year-old has been out with a groin injury and is not expected back anytime soon for the Blues.
“Christian Pulisic is still not fit,” Lampard said in Friday’s press conference. “I can’t give you an exact date. It’s a difficult injury and we’re working on that.”
Since making his move to London, Pulisic has scored five goals and two assists in 16 Premier League appearances. He’s also scored one goal and added one assist in four Champions League appearances and one assist in Carabao Cup play.
Pulisic’s absence has allowed Callum Hudson-Odoi, Willian, Pedro, and Mason Mount all fight for minutes in the first team squad, but has left Lampard without the American during a race for the top-four. His injuries this campaign has also cost him to miss several international breaks with the U.S. Men’s National Team, last appearing in a 3-0 friendly loss to Mexico in September.
Chelsea begin their UCL Round of 16 tie against Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich on Feb. 25th at Stamford Bridge, with Pulisic unlikely to be ready for the first leg. Should he recover in time, Pulisic could be back for the return trip to Germany on March 18th as well as USMNT friendly matches against Wales on the 26th and the Netherlands on the 30th.
Predicting a player’s future injuries and recovery time is a hopeless task. Right now the USA has a group of young players each with his own history (or lack of it) regarding injury.
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It is unlikely all of them will be injury-free in the future, and unlikely that all of them will be injured over the same period. Still among Pulisic, Adams, McKennie, Sargent, Weah, Brooks and Reyna, we seem to be in a world where only 2, maybe 3, are available at any given time. You can probably make the list longer or shorter depending on whom you think is a real talent.
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I suspect this will get better, but, who knows?
??♂️????
Bobby Convey anyone???
? Convey wishes he was this good! 46 caps 1g -4a. CP beat that in ‘16 in his 1st year with USMNT. Look @ it this way, if CP never played again, he would be considered top 10 USMNT all-time. Convey’s injury history, majorly covers up his production.
Top ten? Just based on potential?
I would like to see that argued based on stats. He has a lot of goals for the small number of caps he has played, but the number is 14 and he hasn’t played in a World Cup, so that Goals per 90 is probably a little inflated. You can’t put him ahead of guys like Altidore with 14 goals. Plus I have three keepers over him, add guys like Donovan, Dempey, you are about to have zero defenders pretty soon.
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I will start with stats, started on the team that didn’t make the World Cup.
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Not trying to rip on Pulisic, but he actually needs to accomplish something other than have someone pay him a lot of money.