Christian Pulisic Describes His Latest Injury Bout

Pulisic missed 12 Chelsea matches and a full World Cup qualifying window after being hurt on international duty with the U.S. in September.

Christian Pulisic is fit again for club and country, and fresh off a World Cup qualifying window in which he scored a vital goal vs. Mexico—and enjoyed a pointed celebration—he has reflected on the injury that kept him out for nearly two months.

The high ankle sprain that he suffered in Honduras on Sept. 8 kept Pulisic from 12 Chelsea matches and the entirety of the October World Cup qualifying window. He made his return as a substitute in Chelsea's Champions League group win at Malmö on Nov. 2 and has now been injury-free for over a month. But what was supposed to be a 10-day ordeal earlier in the fall developed into much more.

"This injury was a tough one for me to get over," Pulisic told Chelsea's official website. "I missed a lot of the first part of the season and I’m not a naturally patient person so I just wanted to get back as soon as possible.

"There weren’t any real setbacks, but there were times where I tried to come back and push it but it just wasn’t quite ready. It was just trying to manage how much I could do based off the pain that I was feeling.

"It was important to have good communication with the medical and the training staff. I needed a certain amount of time for the injury to heal and then once you start to play again, obviously you want to take it a bit slower and come back into it easy.

"Sometimes you’re going to feel a bit of pain and that’s just the way it is at the beginning, but it’s got to be something you can deal with, and when it’s too much pain you have to let them know. Eventually I was able to make it back but it feels like a while so I’m definitely excited to get back into it."

He's made a productive return to the pitch. Within minutes of coming on vs. Mexico, he scored the eventual game-winner of Tim Weah's cross before revealing the "man in the mirror" shirt under his jersey that served as a response to Guillermo Ochoa's pre-match bulletin-board material. He scored in his first match for Chelsea after the international break as well, finishing from close range against Leicester City, and set up what would have been a game-winner vs. Manchester United over the weekend had Antonio Rüdiger converted the late chance.

"I saw it and it was a perfect ball, right on his foot, but unfortunately he just missed it," Pulisic said. "It’s good that he was in the right spot."

Pulisic and first-place Chelsea turn their attention a pair of away matches this week—Watford on Wednesday and West Ham on Saturday—before heading to Russia to close Champions League group play at Zenit next week. The Blues, the reigning winners, just need to match Juventus's result to secure a first-place group finish. Both sides are already through to the knockout stage.