U.S. World Cup Team Training Base (IRVINE, Calif.) <\/strong>\u2014 Christian Pulisic emerged from the U.S. men\u2019s national team\u2019s pop-up training tent and jogged to the far side of the field. His teammates had already begun warming up ahead of Wednesday\u2019s practice, making this the third day in a row that the squad had to work out without him.<\/p>\n Pulisic is participating in “modified training” and is “day-to-day” according to a U.S. Soccer spokesperson. The superstar forward left the Americans\u2019 4-1 World Cup opening victory vs. Paraguay last Friday in the first half after he was kicked in the back of his leg. He wore what appeared to be some kind of black compression sleeve around his left calf on Wednesday while he went through light passing drills with team trainers.<\/p>\n The USA faces Australia on Friday in Seattle for its second group stage match (3 p.m. ET on FOX\/FOX One). The nations are tied atop Group D with three points, but the U.S. has a slight advantage on goal differential.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the moment, it\u2019s unclear if Pulisic will be available to play. His teammates, a few of whom have spoken with the media this week, are hopeful. U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino is expected to address the issue at his press conference on Thursday. However, it\u2019s unlikely he\u2019ll reveal any trade secrets \u2013 and Pulisic\u2019s status probably won\u2019t be public knowledge until lineups are released on Friday about an hour before kickoff.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re really hoping that Christian\u2019s gonna be back for the game,” attacking midfielder Brenden Aaronson told a group of reporters before Wednesday\u2019s training session. “I don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on in particular, but we know that he\u2019s gonna give us his all to get back into the team and be there for the game. So we\u2019ll see.”<\/p>\n (Photo by Jamie Squire\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Pulisic contributed to the USA\u2019s first two goals against Paraguay. He was dynamic and dangerous, showing the world that he\u2019s in top form. He spoke with reporters following the match and was asked about his injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I\u2019m really hoping that it\u2019s nothing,” he said matter of factly at the time.<\/p>\n Since then, the U.S. has been cautious with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve still got a couple of days to see where he\u2019s at and, you know, thankfully we\u2019ve got a lot of boys on the bench who are eager and ready to get involved in helping the team and [we have] a lot of quality,” said fullback Antonee “Jedi” Robinson, who plays on the left side with Pulisic.<\/p>\n Midfielder Sebastian Berhalter started the second half of the last match when Pulisic needed to come out at halftime. What will Pochettino do against Australia if he can\u2019t play? There are several options depending on which way Pochettino wants to go, including Berhalter, Aaronson, Gio Reyna, Tim Weah or even Christian Roldan, who plays for the MLS club Seattle Sounders and will be anxious to get on the pitch in front of a home crowd.<\/p>\n Pulisic, though, is irreplaceable.<\/p>\n “Christian is a world-class player,” Weah said earlier this week. “Christian, for me, is top five wingers in the world. He’s one of my favorite players to watch. Being able to play alongside him for a long time has been amazing.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s just the little things that he does,” Weah added. “I mean, he showed it against Paraguay. His ability and what he’s able to do on the ball is amazing for us, it helps the team, and for me, he’s one of the best players I’ve had the opportunity to play with. I’m super proud of him, and hopefully he\u2019ll be ready for our next game.”<\/p>\n Pulisic suffered an injury during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar while scoring the decisive goal in the final group stage match against Iran, which sent the Americans to the knockout round. Although he campaigned to play the second half, he went to the hospital instead to make sure he was okay.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pulisic is the face of the team and is highly motivated to help the United States make history at a home World Cup. He is the type of person who will be doing everything in his power to play on Friday. This isn\u2019t an elimination game, but the U.S. wants to finish first in its group to potentially have a more favorable path in the knockout stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY U.S. World Cup Team Training Base (IRVINE, Calif.) \u2014 Christian Pulisic emerged from the U.S. men\u2019s national team\u2019s pop-up training tent and jogged to the far side of the field. His teammates had already begun warming up ahead of Wednesday\u2019s practice, making this the third day in a row that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}