The extent of Christian Pulisic’s World Cup-ending injury has been revealed.
The USMNT star, who has come under fire after leaving the team’s Round of 16 loss to Belgium with the injury Monday night and his postgame comments, suffered a bone bruise and microfracture of the tibia/fibula in his right leg, The Athletic reported Thursday.
Pulisic was subbed off in the second half of the USMNT’s disappointing 4-1 loss after suffering the injury.
“I just twisted my ankle and sprained my ankle. It’s just frustrating to end like that of course, but now I get time to rest, so it’ll be OK,” Pulisic told Fox’s Jenny Taft after the game, a comment that became polarizing among U.S. Soccer greats.
Carli Lloyd tweeted, “You rest when your playing career is over. Period,” in a clear message to Pulisic.
Landon Donovan took Pulisic to task on his “Unfiltered Soccer” podcast with Tim Howard.
“The reality is, he came out of a World Cup knockout game at home, with his leg still intact. Because you would have had to f–king drag me off the field,” Donovan said.
“And I would have punched the doctor in the face and said, ‘You’re not taking me off the field. Put whatever you need to put in me, and I’m staying on the field.’”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
