Pulisic out for Chelsea as hamstring injury worsens

Eternal injury-optimist Frank Lampard has proven eternally optimistic once again, this time on Christian Pulisic’s “very, very minor” hamstring injury.

Turns out it may not be “very, very minor” or even “very minor” or even “minor” at all. The 22-year-old has been shut down completely after attempting to train midweek on the injury he picked up in the warm-ups ahead of last Saturday’s Burnley match.

“He is not fit to play. He is still suffering with his hamstring and he is not training. In midweek he was training at a low level but was not comfortable so we have to keep looking for the right solution.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Chelsea FC

It’s unclear if this will affect Pulisic’s call-up to the US Men’s National Team. The eternally optimistic plan was to have him use those games to help him collect a few rehab minutes, but if he’s not even able to train, hopefully we’re not being foolish enough to send him off to America right now.

Even eternal injury-optimist Frank Lampard admitted that Pulisic’s injury record is concerning and we’ll have to manage him carefully until he grows or trains himself out of it — or the rest of his career, if he can’t do that.

In other team news, Kepa Arrizabalaga is over his shoulder injury, and is back training with the team. Perhaps he’ll be named to the bench ahead of Willy Caballero tomorrow.

And Kai Havertz is of course out with COVID-19 while Billy Gilmour’s getting close but still rehabbing his knee.