Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic is currently on the sidelines with an ankle injury and he’ll not be fit for the Blues’ Champions League game vs Malmo.
The USA international picked up the injury on Sept. 8 while on international duty and Thomas Tuchel has now revealed that Pulisic has suffered a few setbacks on his road to recovery, which is the main reason why he’s still missing from action.
“He got injured during a match with USA,” Tuchel said, as per ESPN. “It was a tough foul and he hurt his ankle. There is nothing to worry [about] in terms of that we are hiding details or not telling you details. I cannot give you all the details because I am simply not a doctor.
“At the moment, he has some setbacks from pain, not from major injury or from complications. It is simply the pain in the ankle that disturbs him.
“Once these players with these quick movements like Christian, once they feel this pain and are not free in the movement, the recovery is not happening so you start all over again. You start all over again and reach a certain point and then the pain comes back and you have to do a little pause and start all over again.
“Right now, we are very, very close. He was already so close to come to team training last week and had a little setback and a little reaction, nothing serious but serious pain. From there, on we go.
“He is very impatient of course. He does everything and we can see him suffer in every meeting and every time we meet him here in our training centre, he is really suffering. He wants to be on the pitch and help us. Everybody is doing their very best but unfortunately the injury takes its time.”
Will Christian Pulisic fall down the pecking order?
Christian Pulisic has endured a tough time ever since moving to the Premier League but things were finally looking up for the American international.
Christian Pulisic has now been out injured for a total of 335 days since his move to Chelsea, just 30 days short of a full year.
We all know his talent and what he can produce at his best – the next challenge is fitness, and consistency. We’re behind you, @cpulisic_10. pic.twitter.com/7DPLz4pHMm
— LDN (@LDNFootbalI) October 19, 2021
Last season he had scored only four goals in 27 league matches but thanks to that untimely injury, he’s played in only one match this time around.
This injury has pushed him further down the pecking order so if he cannot make a quick recovery then he could very well be a forgotten man at Chelsea.
The Blues have one of the biggest squads in the EPL so replacements are never a problem for Thomas Tuchel. And to make matters worse, Christian Pulisic is not even the first-choice right-winger at the moment. Players like Hakim Ziyech and Havertz are above him and the formation(3-4-1-2) that Tuchel uses, does not actually require an out-and-out right-winger.
If the manager’s words are anything to go by then the American will miss the Malmo game as well as the weekend’s match vs Norwich City and we will have to wait and see if he is fit to face the Saints in the EFL Cup or not.
