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Christian Pulisic is one of five United States men’s national team players being sent back to their club ahead of Tuesday’s friendly. For fans asking why is Pulisic not playing vs Mexico, the USMNT star is going back to AC Milan to manage his workload.
The other four USMNT players heading back to their clubs have picked up minor injuries.
Weston McKennie, Ricardo Pepi, Zack Steffen and Marlon Fossey have all left the USMNT October camp.
Why is Pulisic not playing vs Mexico
Marlon Fossey, Weston McKennie, Ricardo Pepi, Christian Pulisic and Zack Steffen will return to their clubs ahead of the #USMNT's Tuesday friendly in Mexico.
— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) October 13, 2024
Ricardo Pepi will not travel with the @USMNT team to Mexico today. The forward is returning to Eindhoven as a precaution after being hit in the face by a ball in the last match. pic.twitter.com/if1KlBg3kP
— PSV (@PSV) October 13, 2024
New head coach Mauricio Pochettino is exercising caution with an already battered U.S. squad.
“As we have said, we are always going to make decisions that are in the best interest of our players and respect the relationship we have with their clubs,” Pochettino said in a statement.
Two of the five players sent back to their clubs featured in Saturday’s 2-0 friendly victory vs. Panama with Pulisic starting and playing around 65 minutes. Pepi came off the bench in the 67th minute and went on to score in the final moments.
McKennie dressed for the game but sat the bench for the full 90 minutes while Fossey and Steffen were unavailable for the friendly due to injuries.
How Pochettino shuffles the squad for Tuesday’s game will be interesting to see as the USMNT will be without all three of their usual forwards (Pulisic, Folarin Balogun and Timothy Weah).
One fan pointed out that sending the injured players back to their clubs was a good move from Pochettino and the USMNT to earn trust from clubs.
Wow I’m shocked. I can respect this though, we need to earn back trust after what happened to Adams.
— fuzz (@ohiofuzzed) October 13, 2024
Tyler Adams was a prime example of a national team pushing an injured player too much as Adams played in every Copa América game this summer which exacerbated his injury issues. Adams has yet to make an appearance for Bournemouth this season with a back issue and he only made four appearances last season.
The USMNT face Mexico in Guadalajara on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. ET.
