When the roster for the U.S. men's national team's first post-World Cup matches came out on Thursday, Sept. 17, its biggest star was not included.
Christian Pulisic was omitted from Mauricio Pochettino's 28-man roster for the USMNT's four matches in September and October, despite the forward playing 45 minutes in each of AC Milan's past two games.
The USMNT will face Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada in the newly expanded September-October FIFA window.
But Pulisic will not be part of the youth-heavy squad, which includes 12 first-time call-ups.
Pulisic missed much of Milan's preseason after suffering a bone bruise and microfracture in his right tibia and fibula during the USMNT's loss to Belgium in the World Cup round of 16.
But the 27-year-old has
been back in training with Milan for more than a month, and was an unused sub for the team's opening three Serie A matches. Pulisic has come on as a halftime sub in each of the team's past two games, including a standout performance in a 2-2 comeback draw against Lazio on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Pochettino was asked about Pulisic's absence in a call with reporters, but 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.
"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 and Pochettino's relationship has been under scrutiny since the AC Milan forward opted out of the 2025 Gold Cup, citing a grueling club campaign.
In Sept. 2025, Pulisic insisted that his relationship with the coach wasn't strained.
“There’s probably not as much drama as you guys think there is,” Pulisic said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Christian Pulisic absent from first post-World Cup USMNT roster
