Christian Pulisic ruled out for USA against El Salvador, listed as ‘day-to-day’

Christian Pulisic has not traveled with the rest of his international teammates to San Salvador last night, where the US will be taking on El Salvador on Thursday night to begin their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign. Pulisic had been training with the squad for the past few days, but evidently is not fit enough to play just yet.

USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter confirmed the decision to leave Captain America behind, though he didn’t delve into any specific reasons as to why.

“Christian Pulisic did not travel with the team. He will not be playing. He’s listed as day-to-day.”

-Gregg Berhalter; source: CBS Sports

Pulisic had been in isolation for ten days due to a positive COVID-19 test prior to joining up with the national team, so hopefully this is nothing more than him still lacking some match fitness — precisely which, as Thomas Tuchel mentioned as well, we are hoping he would regain during this break.

The US will also play on Sunday, against Canada, back in Nashville, TN, though Berhalter apparently didn’t quite commit yet to Pulisic being available then either.