Injuries seem to be the real Pulisic opponent
Alejandro Panfil @AlePanfil
Christian Pulisic, who is just 21 years old and who was voted U.S. Soccer's Male Athlete of the Year for 2019, seems to be on track to have a very successful career. He’s very young, talented and had an enormous improvement since he left the States to play in big teams of Germany and England.
After his promising starting point at the junior level in Pennsylvania, he took a major step moving to the junior division of Borussia Dortmund where he played until his debut in 2015. On that season, Captain America played 12 games and scored 2 goals. The first one took place on 17th April, 2016 in a 3-0 match against Hamburg in the race to get the Bundesliga Title. That goal was very important for his career because he became the youngest non German player scoring a goal in the country, and the forth youngest ever. A few weeks later, he established two more records at 17 years old, being the youngest player scoring for the US National team in a friendly match (4-0 against Bolivia) and in a World Cup Qualifiers game (6-0 against San Vicente and las Granadinas). Since his arrival in Germany, his transformation as a player was undeniable, especially during the two seasons at Dortmund coached by Tuchel, current coach of Paris Saint Germain. He went from playing 12 games and scoring 2 goals in the 2015-16 season to 43 games and 5 goals in the season 2016/2017. As a consequence, que gained not only continuity but he improved his skills in order to become a bona fide first-team starter.
Unfortunately, in his last year in Germany -when he played 30 games and scored 7 goals- muscular problems (November, 2017) coupled with abdominal influenza and shin bone bruise (January, 2018). This was followed by a torn muscle fiber (October, 2018) and a torn muscle bundle (March, 2019).
Chelsea Football Club was perfectly aware of the health situation of the Gold Cup winner with the US National Team and German Cup champion with Dortmund, but the English club needed a very talented player to shake the transfer market and fill the void left by Eden Hazard, who moved to Real Madrid. That’s why they made an extraordinary investment in the expertise of Pulisic, who arrived in London for 64 million Euros with a 5 years’ contract. "Christian Pulisic has proven his quality during his time in Germany, and at just 20 years old he has the potential to become an important Chelsea player for many years to come. We look forward to welcoming him next summer and we wish him and Dortmund all the success for the rest of the season”, said Marina Granovskaia, Director of Chelsea FC, at the time.
In his first season in Stamford Bridge, he played 34 games and scored 11 goals but he wrote, simultaneously, comparable stats in terms of his injuries: he suffered from arch pain in October 2019, muscle bruise in December 2019 and a tear in the abductor muscle in January 2020. In May, he declared he had been negligent during his recovery period: "I didn't take it as seriously as I think I should have. I felt as if I could do a lot of things, but you try to take that step further and you realize that you're not ready yet".
By the end of the season, after the stop due to Covid-19, the situation became still worse because he suffered from a hamstring injury during the FA Cup Final. Before the match, coach Frank Lampard had said he was worried about the physical situation of Pulisic, but the player answered: "I never had a real problem. I am 100% fit”. He scored a goal but the Gunners finally won 2-1 and, as a consequence of his injury, he missed the second leg of the Champions League 1/8 finals against Bayern Munich. It is also likely for him to miss the start of next Premier League season, which will begin on 12th September. Bad decisions during the rehabilitation periods? Lack of proper pre-season training? Plain bad luck? These are the questions that should be answered by the club and the player in order not to take any more false steps in the future.
In a few years, he showed that he has enormous talent, velocity, game vision, goal power and determination to be a soccer star, but he also showed some physical fragility that threatens his intentions to become a top soccer player. He´s very young and is skillful enough to develop into an extraordinary player. Nevertheless, he’ll need to be taking good care of his main work tool: his body.