It's unfortunate that Pulisic won't be available for the next window. We are running out of windows to see our best players fit enough to all play together.
This is the source of the “serious injury” claim. @Scotty reads Italian @falvo too 🚨 Per #Pulisic sembra un problema piuttosto serio, tempi di recupero si sapranno dopo gli esami.#Milanvia @ManuBaio pic.twitter.com/9S0wd3rjco— Milan Zone (@theMilanZone_) October 15, 2025
It seems to be a fairly serious problem for Pulisic. We won't know the recovery time until the tests are carried out.
You're making this argument a someone who has a background in soccer in the US and CONCACAF. Poch is new to all this. He's new to a continental tournament where you routinely field your backup players and to a system where your best player and captain calls up and tells you which games he's available for. Thomas Tuchel is having issues switching from the German to the English culture, imagine what its like for Poch.
AC Milan are reportedly ‘annoyed’ with how Mauricio Pochettino and the USMNT handled Christian Pulisic, who got hurt against Australia, believing he was risked for no reason given no points were at stake, as he was already dealing with an ankle problem prior to the match.
If AC Milan is annoyed that their player was hurt in a WC tuneup match in a FIFA window, maybe they should avoid signing players who are likely to represent their countries at the WC. Problem solved!
For as long as I remember and going back to at least the mid 1980’s, club managers have always been annoyed when their players get injured while playing for their national teams. In a way, I don't blame them because it's the club that pays their salaries and not the national team program. I remember reading once back in the 90's or 00's that if a player was injured while on national team duty, their federation would pay the club back their salary but I don't think that is still true.
Club teams have to stop running their players into the ground. Ultimately, while it's nice to see US players do well at club level, it's pretty irrelevant to how I perceive them. It definitely seems like the major leagues in Western Europe want to wreck the structure of international competitions. Mutilate them by turning them into something like the NBA where national teams only play a few weeks in the summer.
The national team programs pay as well, and I recall that the US program pays pretty well comparatively.
No, I meant, the federation paying a players' club salary if he gets injured while away on national team duty.
I guess a similar reverse could be done as well. If a player misses international duty because of injury at the club, the club is due damages to the federation.
This type of fighting: Club vs NT goes on all the time. A player gets hurt and the club blames the NT. Sometimes it's valid, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes the club rides a player too hard and the injuries really start with them. This case is difficult since he did come in with an ankle injury (of some sort), but he has played many games, including just before the break, with Milan.
Milan can suck eggs on this one. His ankle had improved, hence he played after being held out earlier. He was injured by the hack Australian or perhaps general fatigue, but his ankle didn’t hurt his hammy.
I believe the USA's responsibility is to pay the medical expenses of players injured on international not to pay their salary. However I could be in error and anything in between "Pay the full salary and all the medical expenses," and "pay absolutly nothing as the club is 100% responsible for the well being of players. I think the medical expenses is all that is actually required but I have no idea how they determine if the club or National team is primarily responsible for the nature of the injury or the aggravating of an existent injury. The injury to Pulisic did not happen solely while playing for the national team and it did not happen solely while playing for Milan. It happened over a series of matches and both Milan and the USA share responsibility. I do wonder why clubs even release players for these meaningless friendlies. They do not have to as long as the player involved does not play or train, except rehab, during the break. But I do not really understand National team matches except for the tournaments. There is no way a few days of training can produce more cohesion that simply training for a week or so before the tournament itself. That is the training that national players get for friendlies actually does more harm than good. I love watching soccer but the soccer produced at club level is much better than that produced in World Cups or any other national team event. Even watching MLS shows better overall soccer that even the final of a WC and MLS is way down the quality totem pole from the truly good leagues. Without having to send their players on international slaughterhouse duties the clubs would be much much better and more fun to watch.
Clubs have no choice but to follow FIFA rules otherwise they face fines and even deduction of points and/or a possible ban in a given tournament. That is one of the main reasons UEFA and FIFA never got a long. The thing is , they are both dead without each other so other than some bickering in the press, things never change and that is why they coexist.
But if they hold a player out and say he is injured and don't play him or train him over the break then they are following FIFA rules. But FIFA has much too much power and that is true for the confederations that run soccer for each continent. But it is what it is and as much as I think FIFA and the federations are corrupt and too inflexible they are the ones in control, right now, and we have to just make the best of it we can.
It’s a two way street. But people are shortsighted here. Shocking. If a club thinks a NT is mismanaging a high paid asset and putting health at risk, they are more likely to fake a small injury in conjunction with the player during certain international windows. Hence they usually work together, and aren’t the emotionally charged children like fans. It would appear given Puli’s injury he won’t be here in Nov so that’s a NT wrap until the spring with only one other window until next summer. And if Puli is carrying any injury come the spring window why would Milan be favorable to a release. That being said, every NT has the rightful expectation to want their players for NT windows. It’s too bad Poch wasted the pre GC friendlies and Sept window.