Christian Pulisic's injury-plagued World Cup campaign took another devastating turn during the United States' 4-1 knockout loss to Belgium, with the AC Milan forward suffering a microfracture and bone bruise that will sideline him for several weeks.
The injury struck in the second half of Monday's last-16 clash in Seattle. Pulisic was removed from the field shortly after the incident and underwent imaging the following day to confirm the damage. US Soccer and Milan are coordinating on his recovery plan.
In comments after the match, Pulisic downplayed the severity, telling reporters "I just totally twisted my ankle and my knee in one play. I have time to rest. It's just unfortunate way to finish." His measured tone drew sharp criticism from prominent voices in American soccer.
Carli Lloyd, the former US women's national team captain now working as an analyst for Fox, fired back on social media the next day: "You rest when your playing career is over. Period." The barb appeared directed squarely at Pulisic's willingness to accept extended absence.
Landon Donovan, the former USMNT captain, was even more pointed on his Unfiltered Soccer podcast. "The reality is, he came out of a World Cup knockout game at home, with his leg still intact," Donovan said. "You would have had to fucking drag me off the field. And I would have punched the doctor in the face and said, 'You're not taking me off the field. Put whatever you need to put in me, and I'm staying on the field.'"
Pulisic's struggles had defined the tournament from the start. He lit up the opening 45 minutes of a 4-1 win over Paraguay before a left-calf injury forced him out at halftime. That same calf issue kept him out of the second group match, a 2-0 victory over Australia. He returned as a substitute in a meaningless 3-2 loss to Turkey, then started against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 32, playing 88 minutes but rarely testing the defense in a 2-0 win.
The string of fitness problems overshadowed what should have been his tournament to showcase his elite talent on the world's biggest stage. Instead, his World Cup legacy is defined by availability issues and a premature exit that came with lingering questions about how much he truly wanted to stay in the game when it mattered most.
Author James Rodriguez: "When a player gets hurt in a knockout match, that's one thing, but the way Pulisic handled it invited the exact kind of backlash he got, and he earned every word of it."
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