Football

USA head coach Gregg Berhalter speaks out over Christian Pulisic’s injury problems


Chelsea and USA star Christian Pulisic has been struggling with a hamstring injury (Picture: Getty)

USA boss Gregg Berhalter has played down concerns over Christian Pulisic’s injury woes and insists the forward is just ‘adapting to the demands’ of a different schedule since joining Chelsea.

Pulisic missed the start of the season after suffering a hamstring problem in Chelsea’s FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal and returned at the start of last month, featuring against Crystal Palace, Southampton, Sevilla, Manchester United and Krasnodar.

Another setback followed as Pulisic again went down with a hamstring injury in warm-up prior to Chelsea’s victory at Burnley and the 22-year-old missed the side’s two most recent games leading into the international break.

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However, the former Borussia Dortmund star was included in Berhalter’s 24-man squad for USA’s upcoming friendly matches with Wales and Panama.

Asked about the question marks surrounding Pulisic’s fitness in seemingly every international break, Berhalter told ESPN: ‘I don’t see it like that.

‘I really see it as a young player who is just adapting to the demands of a different game, a different schedule.

‘When you get injured, when you have a muscle injury, it takes you a while to get fully fit and recover and this is part of his recovery process.

‘I have no doubt that he’s going to be a player that is fit for a very long period of time when he gets through this period.’

Pulisic had to drop out of Chelsea’s starting XI at Turf Moor after an injury in warm-up (Picture: CBS Sports)

Pulisic is listed as a ‘day-to-day’ member of Berhalter’s squad heading into USA’s double-header and it’s unclear whether the attacker will feature in either friendly.

‘Christian is in camp and is listed as day-to-day,’ Berhalter told Fox Sports.

‘It says a lot about Christian that he wasn’t playing for Chelsea but wanted to come into this camp and be around the team.

‘His status is day-to-day.’

Frank Lampard will be hoping Pulisic avoids any fresh injury concerns, with games coming thick and fast for Chelsea both domestically and in Europe.

After the international break, the Blues travel to Newcastle before facing Rennes for a second time in the Champions League.

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