During his days at Chelsea FC, United States Men’s National Team Capt. Christian Pulisic was very injury-prone. While no professional athlete would ever publicly admit that they are “injury prone,” facts don’t lie. During one of his several injury recoveries at Chelsea, one of his several managers at Chelsea, Frank Lampard, once told the media that the club was making sure not to “overcook him.”
Basically, manage his minutes, keep to a strict pitch count, so as to not to further injure Pulisic. That’s what USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino (another of the many men to manage Chelsea in recent years) is doing right now with Pulisic.
World Cup Group D Matchday 2 of 3
USMNT vs Australia
Kick off: Juneteenth, Qwes….wait, no excuse me, “Seattle” Stadium, 2pm CST (yes, central, the best time zone of all)
Broadcast: regular OTA FOX on TV, FOX One and FOX Sports apps, streaming on Tubi
Team News: Socceroos USMNT
Predicted Starting XIs: Socceroos USMNT
Current FIFA Ranking: USMNT #15 Socceroos #22
Google’s Result Probability: Australia win 17% Draw 23% USA win 60%
Group Standing: Australia 2nd, 3 pts, +2 GD USA 1st, 3 pts, +3 GD
More Overanalysis of the Calf Injury to Christian Pulisic
The extent of Capt. America’s calf injury is being played down right now, but it might be more severe than they are letting on. After all, he missed the entire second half of the 4-1 rout over Paraguay, last Friday night, when he first aggravated the problem. And here we are, nearly a week later, and he’s still training alone.
Five days later, Pulisic is still “day to day” in status.
That’s not exactly a “knock,” and the chances of him featuring, at all, versus Australia on Friday have to be 50/50 at this point.
His teammate, midfielder Tyler Adams, sounded much more optimistic.
“Christian will be ready, everyone. Let’s relax,” Adams said on Monday.
“I think he picked up a knock a few days before the match and got kicked in the same spot again during the match.”
The one time that Pulisic has really said anything publicly about this injury, came directly after the match.
He said to the TV broadcast:
“I just got a bit of a kick in the first half, so I’m really hoping that it’s nothing…Taking a little bit of precaution today, but I’m hoping I’ll be fine in the next few days.”
Basically, it’s going to be a late fitness test, on matchday itself, for Pulisic most likely.
Chris Richards Did Not Miss a Beat
The USMNT have no other injury concerns at this time. Last Friday night (channeling my inner Katy Perry with those three words) center back Chris Richards came back from two ankle sprains to go the entire game, and he completed every single one of his 83 passes.
World class. Astounding.
Chris Richards 83/83 completed passes are the most passes with 100% accuracy by any player in a FIFA World Cup match since 1966 👏 pic.twitter.com/tDYxIRwpEA
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) June 13, 2026
It was his first competitive action in about a month, since he suffered the injury about a month beforehand. As he was nearing a return, his injury had been referred to as an “ankle sprain,” instead of “two ankle ligament tears.”
That’s interesting, because an ankle sprain, an ankle ligament tear and an ankle ligament rupture are all basically the same injury, just different severities.
A sprain is the most mild problem, a ligament tear is the middle and a ligament rupture is the most serious.
They never officially revealed what two ankle ligaments Richards had torn. Nor did they say what grade the tears were, low or high.
Most likely Richards did not suffer any problems with his Achilles or his posterior tibial ligaments. Those are the two most critical ankle ligaments of all, and any injuries there would have resulted in his being sidelined for much longer. Maybe he had injuries to the spring ligament, or the deltoid ligament complex?
You might be asking yourself, how do I know so much about this stuff?
Because coincidentally, on the same day that the Richards news broke, this writer got his own MRI results- two ankle ligament tears: high grade tearing of the spring ligament and low grade tearing of the deltoid ligament complex.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.