‘Doesn’t want to talk about it’ - Why USMNT star Christian Pulisic is skipping Gold Cup duty as Taylor Twellman & former MLS midfielder Dax McCarty discuss ‘soap opera’ sparked by ‘Captain America’

AC Milan forward Pulisic ruled himself out of contention for selection as the United States prepare to launch another bid for silverware on home soil. Mauricio Pochettino will be relying on others to produce moments of match-altering inspiration.

Pulisic’s decision to make himself unavailable has been met with criticism by some - including former USMNT stars Landon Donovan and Alexi Lalas - with club commitments seemingly being prioritised over international endeavours.

Twellman, though, believes Pulisic is nursing a knock that requires a period of rest. He said on the new ‘It’s Called Soccer’ podcast that is being produced by Gary Neville’s media channel The Overlap: “I think Pulisic is dealing with an injury and he just doesn't want to talk about it. I think there is real concern and the rumor has been in Italy for the last two months that there's something going on with his hip. That should have been stated immediately when he made that decision.”

Former MLS midfielder Dax McCarty said: “I don’t have any issues with Christian Pulisic wanting to get some rest, but where I think we need to reassess our mentality on this a little bit is that we’re a year out from the biggest World Cup in history… Is there not a world in which Christian Pulisic could have come in as a leader of this team and been a part of the squad, played a couple of minutes here and there, managed his minutes… and still been able to go on vacation?”

McCarty added on the unfortunate episode as a whole, with the USMNT suffering a humbling 4-0 defeat to Switzerland in their latest friendly outing: “I feel like it's a soap opera. I feel like I'm watching an episode of The Hills, reality TV kind of like unfold in real time right in front of our faces.

“But seriously let me just say right off the bat that I think it’s such a sad state of affairs that the main talking points a year out from a World Cup all revolve around off-field drama and off-field nonsense and a bunch of stuff that quite frankly is unnecessary... but at the end of the day we have to talk about it, because of the state of the national team.”

The United States - who will be filling a role of co-hosts alongside Canada and Mexico at the 2026 World Cup - will get their Gold Cup campaign up and running on Sunday when facing Trinidad and Tobago at PayPal Park in San Jose.