Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic injured his hamstring in the FA Cup final loss to Arsenal last weekend, but fortunately, it’s not too serious. On Monday, we received an incomplete injury update from Pulisic himself, via his Instagram account.
Pulisic let all his followers know that’s he alright and the injury isn’t too severe, but today, we received more information about the situation, via Blues boss Frank Lampard. Turns out, the American won’t be ready by opening day of the next Premier League season.
“We will get him fit and ready, if he misses the first one or two games, then we can wait for a firing Christian like he was from restart,” Lampard told the media from Munich, via a Zoom conference.
Lampard confirmed that Pulisic should be out for about six weeks. Chelsea will take on Bayern in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie on Saturday, and they’ll have a major uphill climb as they trail 0-3 from the first leg.
Chelsea will also be without the services of potentially up to eight more players, in addition to Pulisic, so really in all likelihood, this will be the end of the Blues 2019-20 season. So looking ahead to next season, it begins off a very quick turnaround.
The 2020-21 league season kicks off on Sept. 12 (fixtures are yet to be announced), and according to Lampard, the 21-year-old American could miss the first couple of games. He’ll also miss out on the preseason.
However, once he gets going, he’ll play a leading role in what Lampard wants to do. Pulisic suffered a nasty adductor injury on New Year’s Day, and he didn’t return to action until the restart after the coronavirus shut down.
As we saw during this period, in which he showcased elite level form, he’s the Blues Blues’ most important player in attack, and the final third suffers greatly when the Hershey, Pennsylvania native isn’t on the pitch.
It wasn’t all bad news on Friday though, in regards to Pulisic. Despite an injury shortened season, as he was also named to the short list of finalists for the Premier League Young Player of the Year award today.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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