U.S. star Christian Pulisic cleared to play vs. Netherlands in World Cup knockout round
The balls on this guy!
American spirits were given a boost on Friday with the announcement that star midfielder Christian Pulisic has been cleared to play in Saturday’s Round of 16 World Cup match against the Netherlands.
This news came after the U.S. training session on Friday.
The news from coach Gregg Berhalter earlier in the day hinted as much, but his status is now official.
This condition of Pulisic and his balls, er “pelvic contusion,” has been one of the major concerns entering the matchup with the storied European side.
“We’re going to see him on the training field today,” Berhalter said during Friday’s pre-match press conference. “What I think is, it looks pretty good. So we’ll have to see him today on the pitch to get confirmation of that.”
The U.S. staff obviously liked what they saw during that training session.
Pulisic suffered the injury colliding with the Iranian goalkeeper on Tuesday after scoring what would be the winning goal that put the U.S. into the knockout stage. Pulisic had to exit the Iran match at halftime to be checked at the hospital.
The 24-year-old Pulisic looked to be in good spirits during his Thursday press conference where he said he would do “everything I can” to play against the Netherlands.
On the availability of 22-year-old striker Josh Sargent, the news is a little less encouraging. Sargent exited the Iran match in the 77th minute with a right ankle injury. Sargent did work out and looked good according to The Athletic, but there was no news reported on his status.
“[Sargent is] another one we’re going to test in training, see where he’s at,” Berhalter said. “I think with Christian, we’re hopeful. I think with [Sargent] a little less so, but we’ll see. He’s going to test. At this stage, it’s go time. If you can push through it, you do.”
