Christian Pulisic Isn’t Having the Resurgent Start at AC Milan He Desperately Needed
After only playing 224 minutes at the 2026 World Cup, Christian Pulisic hasn’t had the bounce back he’s hoped to experience through the early stages of the 2026–27 season.
Despite headlining the U.S. men’s national team’s 26-man World Cup roster this summer, various leg injuries limited his playing time at the tournament and continued to plague him into the fall. Three games into AC Milan’s Serie A campaign, the 27-year-old winger has yet to see the pitch, despite being included in Ruben Amorim’s matchday squads.
According to previous reports, Pulisic suffered a bone bruise and microfracture in his right tibia and fibula at the World Cup, and had pain creeping in from past injuries throughout the tournament as well.
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Those impacts are still being felt after he didn’t see the pitch in Milan’s latest match, a 1–1 draw with Serie A rivals, Juventus. Instead, 19-year-old Alphadjo Cisse seems to have taken Pulisic’s role, while fellow USMNT midfielder Yunus Musah—who has largely been overlooked for international duty under Mauricio Pochettino—has started every game.
“Pulisic is back from injury. I’m managing him. For now, Alpha is taking his place,” Milan manager and former Manchester United boss Amorim told reporters after the draw against the Turin side. “Chukwueze came on and provided an assist. Moreira hadn’t played for three weeks. Rabiot played 60 minutes today. We’re still managing the minutes of some players and trying to win the match. Sometimes it’s not just the technical and tactical aspects, it’s also the physical aspect.”
Pulisic will have another opportunity to make his season debut in Milan’s upcoming fixture on Saturday, as his side pays a visit to the Italian capital to take on Lazio.
Will Pulisic Earn USMNT Call for Friendlies?
Having not seen the pitch for competitive minutes since the World Cup, time is short for Pulisic to get back to full match fitness in order to play a role in the USMNT’s friendly matches against Peru, Chile, Canada and Mexico in the September-October international window.
While past chapters of Pulisic’s career would have likely seen him opt for rest instead of coming into camp, the new expanded roster, potentially with younger talents and a reinvigorated push from Pochettino could lure him into the picture despite being below full fitness.
Speaking on young players primarily, Pochettino expressed his frustrations with players skipping camps, seemingly highlighting Pulisic’s absence at the 2025 Gold Cup. At the time, the Serie A attacker cited rest to be healthy for the World Cup, but that hope never materialized.
“We were talking about habits. Before, it was difficult to make the roster for the Gold Cup one year before because the mindset was different. They’d say, ‘Oh, if I have no holidays, I cannot arrive fresh for the World Cup,’” Pochettino said this week.
“With time, [we] know now that is bulls---, no? It’s [time] to change this type of idea [and] to build the mindset with the coaches, with the people in the organization and in the clubs, and, of course, with the players in the way we will plan.”
Whether Pochettino will include an out-of-form and out-of-fitness Pulisic in the roster remains to be seen, but it will be vital for the USMNT’s No. 10 to find his form at club level once again, before competitive international fixtures resume with the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals in November.
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