The U.S. men's national team will begin its post-2026 World Cup era without Christian Pulisic.
Pulisic was omitted from Mauricio Pochettino's 28-man roster for the USMNT's four matches in September and October, beginning with a game against Peru on Saturday, Sept. 26.
The 28-year-old's absence is something of a mystery. Though he was injured at the World Cup and missed much of AC Milan's preseason, Pulisic has been back in the mix with his club for well over a month.
Pulisic was an unused sub for the team's opening three Serie A matches before featuring in the team's last three games across all competitions. He got his first start and scored his first goal of the season in a 3-0 win against Lecce on Sunday, Sept. 20.
When given the opportunity to
explain Pulisic's absence from his roster, Pochettino declined to get into specifics.
"The 28 players that are going to be involved in these four games, for different circumstances, are the best players we want see and we want to work with and that's it," the coach said in a call with reporters last week.
"There is no point now in the first camp of this new cycle to start to explain why one player [is on the roster] and not another. Because if not, maybe we will spend an hour here. We always work to try to call the players we believe are the best for this roster."
Pulisic figures to still be a major piece for the USMNT moving forward. The forward has earned 90 caps for the USMNT, scoring 33 goals.
The USMNT will face Peru on Saturday before matches against Chile, Mexico and Canada to close out the newly expanded September-October FIFA window.
Pulisic could return as soon as November, when the USMNT will face a yet-to-be-determined opponent in a two-leg Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why is Christian Pulisic not playing for USMNT vs. Peru?
