Christian Pulisic returned to training with his American teammates on Monday after missing the most recent World Cup match with a calf injury.
Pulisic took part in warm-ups and ball drills during the 15-minute practice that was open to the media in Orange County. The team did not provide a formal update on the status of the AC Milan midfielder, who was limited to one dynamic half in the unbeaten US home championship.
Pulisic did not play in the Americans’ 2-0 win over Australia last Friday in Seattle. He played the first half of their tournament-opening win over Paraguay and was the catalyst for two of their three goals in the first half of a historic 4–1 victory before coming off at half-time with stiffness from the injury he sustained in training the week before.
Pulisic trained separately from his teammates during training between the first two games, so his return to the full squad was obviously encouraging. During his absence he had limited himself to gym workouts, resistance training and light ball work.
«It’s a tough situation when you have a little setback,» American teammate Alex Zendejas said on Monday. «It’s an important tournament where obviously everyone wants to come out at 100%, but (we don’t) talk about the injury or talk about the moment that (Pulisic) is going through. (We) talk about other things, try to take his mind off it. Just be there for him.»
The US closes group play against Turkey on Thursday evening at SoFi Stadium in a meaningless match for the group-winning Americans and the already eliminated Turks.
The Americans’ first knockout match is on July 1 in Santa Clara, California.
American coach Mauricio Pochettino still did not have his full squad on the Great Park field. Midfielder Cristian Roldan missed training with a pulled muscle.
Published on June 23, 2026
