Pulisic exits USA's World Cup exit with ankle injury as Pochettino fears for AC Milan return

Christian Pulisic’s World Cup is over after he limped out of the United States’ 4-1 round-of-16 defeat to Belgium on Monday, twisting his right ankle in the 52nd minute and watching the remainder of the loss from the bench.

Pulisic was attempting a shot when his foot caught the boot of Belgium captain Youri Tielemans. After spending several moments on the pitch, he began favouring the foot and was replaced in the 59th minute by Sebastian Berhalter, with the U.S. already trailing 3-1.

U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino said after the game he hoped the injury was not serious and that Pulisic would be able to reintegrate with AC Milan in good time. Players are typically afforded 21 days off following World Cup elimination before reporting back to their clubs.

The ankle setback was the second time Pulisic left a match during this tournament. A calf injury sustained in training had curtailed his involvement in the group stage — he played only the first half of the opening 4-1 win over Paraguay before sitting out the victory over Australia entirely, then came on as a substitute in the loss to Turkey.

Pulisic returned to the starting lineup for the round-of-32 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina, but the tournament ended without a goal for the 26-year-old, who has 33 international goals in 90 appearances yet has scored just once in eight World Cup games — against Iran in the 2022 group stage.

“I felt really good this summer with the guys and I thought my level was high,” Pulisic said. “It’s disappointing I didn’t quite have the moments I was hoping to and to try to help us to get over this next step of beating a really good team.”

Having to leave the field was “difficult for me to deal with,” he added, though he pledged to “try and stay positive.”

American defender Alex Freeman offered a vote of confidence in his teammate. “He’s going to bounce back,” Freeman said. “He’s a great player and a person that’s always going to fight.”