Christian Pulisic couldn't walk. While fans all over the United States were celebrating a dominant 4-1 victory over Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Pulisic was off his feet and receiving treatment.
USMNT manager Maricio Pochettino explained to reporters that the colder it got, the worse his calf muscles became. Simply put, Pulisic’s calf muscles had seized up at halftime, and he could not return. “When it starts to get cold, he cannot walk,” Pochettino said. An eerie statement, but it was a precaution of what fans may have to brace for the rest of this tournament.
One injury could make the USA collapse at the World Cup
Maybe fans should be bracing for what feels like an inevitability: USA will suffer a crucial injury to a key player. This isn’t a random prediction, but instead given this squad’s injury history its a high probability. The roster is already built around a small group of key stars who genuinely move the needle. Pulisic certainly is one of those players, and he proved it in the first half of the USA’s first match of the World Cup. Every major USA attack seemed to funnel through Pulisic.
Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun, Antonee Robinson, and Pulisic represent the squad’s identity. Lose any of them for any stretch of time, and this tournament can turn quickly and not in a good way. It's not a complete indictment of the team, but it is a structural weakness. In addition to the squad’s dependence on these key players, they also share something else. All of them have an injury history that doesn’t exactly instill confidence in the durability of the team.
This squad is built around an uncomfortably small number of players who genuinely move the needle. Pulisic at the peak of his first half against Paraguay was everything the USMNT needs him to be — creative, relentless, and decisive. Pochettino acknowledged as much in his post-match comments. Every dangerous American attack seemed to flow through him. That's not a compliment in a vacuum. That's a structural warning.
The problem is that losing them, in various combinations, has become something close to a recurring issue for this squad rather than an exception.
No player illustrates the USMNT's injury fragility like Tyler Adams. Since Pochettino took charge in September 2024, the United States has played 22 matches. Adams has been available for 10 of them.
A decade of back issues. Hamstring problems. A torn MCL against Manchester United in December. That cost him two months of the season and had many questioning whether he'd make it to a home World Cup at all. He did make it. He even returned in form, helping Bournemouth qualify for the Europa tournament. By the end of the season, there were hamstring concerns in April, and a total tally of less than six hours of football across the club's final seven league games.
If Adams goes down to injury, who backs him up? Sebastian Berhalter? Cristian Roldan? The drop off is considerable. They are MLS players being asked to cover for a Premier League starter, and the deeper they go, the more they will have to cover some of the most elite players in the world. Some other options would have been Tanner Tessmann and Johnny Cardoso, but you guessed it, they are out due to injury as well.
McKennie’s injury history at Juventus is well documented. He has spent plenty of time injured or recovering from injuries. A fractured foot and shoulder issues have kept him out of the starting eleven for significant stretches of recent seasons, either completely out or managing his fitness. The first month of the World Cup will put McKennie to the test with 7 matches in that span. For a player whose body has consistently failed to cooperate, this will be a true test of his endurance.
Robinson and Balogun have been healthy this past season, but have certainly had their bouts with injuries. When it comes to depth at those positions, Pochettino has better choices in case they go down. Hagi Wright, Ricardo Pepi, and versatile defenders like Joe Scally make up their understudies. Balogun’s 19-goal season at Monaco was encouraging, and he followed that up with 2 goals in the first match.
The operative phrase is: if this team stays healthy. The USMNT's injury history with its key players is not a streak of bad luck. It's a pattern. Adams has missed more than half of Pochettino's games as manager. Pulisic came into a home World Cup opener with a pre-existing calf issue and didn't survive the first half. McKennie's durability has been questioned for years. The contingency midfielders were themselves injured out of the squad before a match was even played.
The key players will be in the starting eleven versus Australia, but will the USA survive their biggest challenge? Keeping those key players fit.
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