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Christian Pulisic has joined the United States team ahead of their matches against Wales and Panama despite missing Chelsea’s last three games with a hamstring injury.
The 22-year-old winger was not fit enough to play for Frank Lampard’s team in a 4-1 win over Sheffield United on Saturday, but United States head coach Gregg Berhalter confirmed he has already joined his team.
It’s unclear whether Pulisic will be ready to face Wales on Thursday night in Swansea or Panama in Austria early next week.
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“Christian is at camp and he’s on the day-to-day list,” Berhalter said. Fox Sport. “It says a lot about Christian that he didn’t play for Chelsea, but he wanted to come to this camp and be close to the team. His status is day to day.”
Pulisic stopped with hamstring pain during warm-up outside Burnley nine days ago and tried training ahead of the Champions League win over Rennes only to withdraw early from the session at Cobham.
He did not practice in the second half of last week and Frank Lampard indicated that there is some concern that the former Borussia Dortmund player will suffer recurring muscle injuries.
Pulisic tore his hamstring in the FA Cup final loss to Arsenal in early August and missed several games in his debut campaign in England due to nagging problems.
“With actual muscle injuries, it’s hard to identify,” Lampard said last week. “It will always be a challenge, some players who play at the limit, have so much speed and acceleration in their game, maybe they can be more susceptible.”
“I don’t think that’s a one-size-fits-all answer, because it’s different for everyone. Since last season we have been looking for ways to handle Christian and looking for ways to be proactive so we don’t have so many injuries, I hope.” He knows that is something that he has also experienced earlier in his career at Dortmund.
“So we are all working in the same direction on that, to try to keep him as fit as possible, because we all know his talent.”
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