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When Mauricio Pochettino unveiled his U.S. men's national team squad for the upcoming fall friendlies, one name stood out by its absence: Christian Pulisic.
The 27-year-old, now back to full fitness after sustaining a microfracture at the 2026 World Cup, will be forced to watch from the sidelines as his compatriots face Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada during the combined September-October international window.
It's becoming an all-too-familiar situation for Pulisic. Whether due to injury concerns, a desire for rest or simply a coach's call, the forward is making fewer and fewer appearances for the Stars and Stripes. His fading presence in red, white and blue has also run parallel to his declining form at AC Milan.
Remarkably, the player once hailed as the "future" of the USMNT is now struggling to even secure a place in the team's present. How did Pulisic fall so dramatically out of favor at both club and international level?
It All Started at the 2025 Gold Cup
Many USMNT stars sat out the 2025 Gold Cup, but no one has been more haunted by that choice than Pulisic. The American opted to skip last summer's tournament, choosing to prioritize rest ahead of the 2025–26 season and the World Cup.
It was yet another moment that cast doubt over Pulisic's dedication to the Stars and Stripes. Rather than building chemistry under a new manager, adapting to fresh tactics and representing his country, the man dubbed "Captain America" simply didn't show up—literally.
The decision created a rift between Pulisic and Pochettino, who repeatedly stressed that he only wants players who are fully committed to the badge. The Argentine made an even louder statement when he turned down Pulisic's request to feature in friendlies against Türkiye and Switzerland prior to the Gold Cup.
"I did speak with the coaches, and I asked, and I wanted to be a part of the team in whatever capacity I could, and they said no," Pulisic said.
Suddenly, the face of the USMNT—a player known for being composed and reserved in interviews—was throwing Pochettino under the bus in an effort to defend himself following the backlash over his Gold Cup absence.
"I didn't understand it, but it is what it is. I wanted to be a part of that, but that's just the way things went, and I had to make the best decision for myself and also in the long run for my team, even though clearly some people haven't seen it that way," Pulisic added.
The Highs and Lows of 2025–26
Initially, Pulisic's choice to sit out the 2025 Gold Cup appeared to have been the right one. The forward launched his 2025–26 campaign in career-best fashion, netting 10 goals and adding two assists before the new year arrived. The additional rest had him performing at an all-time peak.
Pulisic also appeared to mend fences with Pochettino, earning call-ups for both the September and October 2025 international breaks. Even a minor injury setback couldn't overshadow what had been a remarkable few months for the American.
Then everything unraveled after the holiday period. Pulisic went 20 games without scoring for AC Milan in the second half of 2025–26, lost his place in the starting lineup, and only salvaged the campaign with three assists before the season concluded.
His struggles extended to the national team as well, drawing a blank during the March international window. The player who had skipped the Gold Cup to arrive at the World Cup in peak condition was, ironically, in the worst form of his career.
It seemed as though Pulisic had turned a corner when he contributed a goal and an assist for the USMNT in an international friendly ahead of the summer's marquee tournament. He was back at the center of things with an assist in the team's World Cup opener against Paraguay, a match that ended in a 4–1 win.
Then injury struck once more, compounded by more poor performances, and he closed out the World Cup without a single goal in four appearances, thoroughly overshadowed by his teammates. For a squad that went on a fairytale run, Pulisic individually was completely devoid of magic.
For the first time in a long while, it made perfect sense why Pulisic was no longer wearing the captain's armband.
A Fall From Grace
The bitter disappointment of underperforming at a home World Cup followed Pulisic back to Milan, where he slowly recovered from the microfracture that had hampered him in North America. Yet he soon found himself at the foot of new manager Ruben Amorim's squad hierarchy.
Pulisic spent the opening three matches of the 2026–27 season as an unused substitute, languishing on the bench. Amorim acknowledged that the American was "upset at the moment because he has zero minutes."
It was a stunning fall from grace. Pulisic had gone from lifting the Champions League trophy with Chelsea and becoming the focal point at Milan to not even earning a substitute appearance in the early weeks of the new season.
It mirrored his trajectory with the national team. Pulisic had gone from becoming the youngest USMNT goalscorer in the modern era at 17 and the fastest USMNT player to reach 50 goal contributions, to not even receiving a call-up for this fall's friendlies.
Pochettino Twists the Knife
In characteristic Pochettino style, the manager sidestepped the question of why Pulisic had been omitted from his squad for the first international action since the 2026 World Cup—yet managed to say a great deal without committing to specifics.
"After the World Cup, we started to change and to see and to analyze for the players, potential players for this camp," Pochettino said. "Like always, I say, I think the 28 players that are going to be involved in these four games, for different circumstances, are the best players, or the players that we want to see, the ones to play that we want to work [with] and that's it.
"Because I think it's not a point that, now [in] the first camp of this new cycle, to start to explain why is one [player left out], why [it] is not another [player]."
It is evident that Pochettino does not consider Pulisic among the best 28 players currently available, despite the forward finally making his seasonal debut for Milan and contributing an assist. At the very least, Pulisic is not someone the coaching staff are eager to assess this fall.
A significant cultural shift is underway at the USMNT—one that, for now, does not appear to include Pulisic.