U.S. men's national team forward Christian Pulisic reportedly suffered a microfracture in his leg during Monday's 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16, though the injury is not expected to keep him on the sidelines for an extended period of time.
Pulisic will miss weeks rather than months with the injury to the tibia/fibula, according to The Athletic, while he was also diagnosed with a bone bruise. He was reportedly seen on crutches at the team hotel on Tuesday in Seattle.
He appeared to sustain the injury in the 52nd minute of the game, the score still 2-1 in the Belgian's favor. Pulisic attempted to take a shot but kicked opposition midfielder Youri Tielemans' calf instead and hurt himself along the way. He tried to continue but came off in the 59th minute, two minutes after Hans Vanaken made it 3-1 to Belgium thanks to a blunder from USMNT goalkeeper Matt Freese, and marked an unfortunate end to an otherwise absent performance from Pulisic.
"I just totally twisted my ankle and my knee in one play," Pulisic said after the match.
Pulisic would have missed the USMNT's subsequent match should they have advanced, Belgium instead playing in Friday's quarterfinal against title contenders Spain. He is instead slated to be unavailable for the start of AC Milan's preseason, the team now under the leadership of ex-Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim.
"Pulisic is a highly talented player, but unfortunately, he got injured again," Amorim said Wednesday. "We need to find out what's wrong with him. He can make a difference in tight spaces here in Italy. I have an idea of where I want to see him play: on the left as an inverted winger. I know his qualities, and he will have great support here."
It was the second injury Pulisic picked up during the World Cup, previously dealing with a calf injury that first ensured he would come off at halftime of the USMNT's 4-1 win over Paraguay on June 12 and then ruled him out of their 2-0 win over Australia on June 19. He only got close to a 90-minute outing once during the five-game stretch, going 88 minutes in the 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32 on July 1.
Injuries and disappointment plague Pulisic's USMNT legacy
Pulisic's injury-plagued World Cup, combined with his silent performances in both knockout stage matches, meant this tournament ultimately came and went without him leaving much of a mark. He got off to a scintillating start in the win over Paraguay in a first half that may have been his very best in a national team shirt. He notched an assist and created two chances before his surprise halftime substitution, the player later revealing he was dealing with a small calf issue. He offered a bright spark when he returned midway through the second half of the 3-2 loss to Turkiye on June 25, but he didn't register much after that.
It has caused a unique form of ire in American soccer circles, the weight of the team's expectations falling squarely on his shoulders. The 27-year-old became the face of the national team's quote-unquote golden generation before he attended prom, arriving at a World Cup on home soil in the peak years of his career with the hopes of leaving a dent. The moment ultimately passed by in the blink of an eye, though.
Pulisic has become a divisive figure of sorts as a result, in part because his track record in big games is not much to write home about. He got the assist to the USMNT's only goal in their round of 16 defeat to the Netherlands at the 2022 World Cup, but this summer, he posted no shots, assists or chances created against Bosnia and Herzegovina or Belgium. Before the World Cup, his last competitive matches were in the 2025 Concacaf Nations League semifinal and third-place match – in the semifinal against Panama. He put on an encouraging display with three chances created for a U.S. team that was unlucky not to score before a 1-0 loss. In the third-place match against Canada, which the team lost 2-1, Pulisic faded completely – he took just 20 touches in 69 minutes, attempted just 12 passes and completed only 58%, and his expected goals and assist tally clocked in at zero.
The foundation of Pulisic's relationship to the public, though, is the fact that he is an incredibly reluctant star. He is never particularly comfortable in public-facing settings, which has inadvertently created some distance between him and the American soccer landscape as a whole. Over the last year in particular, that has played out in a generational battle of tensions between the current players on the U.S. team and those who came before them. Several retired players have been quick to question Pulisic's commitment to the national team, perhaps most notably when ex-star Landon Donovan criticized Pulisic's decision to opt out of last summer's Concacaf Gold Cup. Pulisic has had his reasons for the way he acts in public, many of them justifiable – he has opened up about the mental load of being a professional soccer player as well as the physical demands of being one in the age of fixture congestion, skipping the Gold Cup to give his body time to recover ahead of the World Cup. His comments never seem to land, though, because having a quiet personality is an unforgiving quality in such a public role.
Pulisic was featured in a nine-part Paramount+ docuseries that explores the pressures of performing on the world stage ahead of a World Cup cycle while tracing his journey from a small-town kid in Hershey, Pennsylvania to European stardom. Stream "Pulisic" now on Paramount+
After Monday's defeat to Belgium, in which Pulisic joined all of his teammates in a virtually invisible showing, this tension between the player and his audience will only magnify. It is because multiple things can be true at once – Pulisic has a right to dislike the limelight and despise a single-minded pressure that sometimes only he faces. Others, though, are correct to point out that he is supposed to be better than his recent track record with the national team, scoring just once since Nov. 2024. He is likely still far away from retirement, several strong years technically still ahead of him barring injuries for a player who is prone to them. The World Cup he, and many, spent the better part of a decade building up to with high hopes and reasonable expectations, though, is gone. The fact that the moment faded quickly will likely be part of his legacy as a national team player, something he acknowledged – even if his here and there response echoed a career that has been a fascinating exercise in only realizing one's potential somewhat.
"I felt really good this summer playing with the guys and I thought my level was high," he reflected after the Belgium defeat. "It's disappointing. I didn't quite have the moments I was hoping to and to try to help us to really push and get over this next step of beating a really good team so I'm disappointed with myself, of course, but I'm going to try to stay positive. I did a lot of good things and the team did as well."
