Christian Pulisic has avoided a serious muscle problem which is a big sigh of relief for AC Milan, but Saturday’s game against Lecce should see Samuel Chukwueze get a start.
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Calciomercato.com report that Pulisic had a muscle contracture that means he is training individually at the moment and will not represent the United States against Trinidad and Tobago over the international break.
Chukwueze meanwhile returned to the bench for the match against PSG after almost three weeks of absence due to the hamstring injury suffered with the Nigerian national team during the mid-October break.
He missed four games (PSG in the Champions League, Juventus, Napoli and Udinese in Serie A), an absence coinciding with Milan’s moment of greatest difficulty, especially from an attacking point of view.
Now, it is time for the most expensive purchase of the summer transfer campaign to step up, recalling that Chukwueze cost €20m as an up-front fee plus €8m in potential bonuses but he is yet to score a goal.
The very positive impact from Pulisic did not allow the former Villarreal man to accumulate a large amount of playing time (less than 300 minutes in total in nine appearances between the league and the Champions League), but there is a need to unlock.
Chukwueze was signed because of his goal threat, his effectiveness in one-on-one situations, and the ability to create numerical superiority with dribbling that had made him, in an ideal world, the equivalent of Rafael Leao on the right wing to give greater unpredictability to Milan’s attack.
These are skills that have so far been little seen at Milan but this doesn’t change Pioli’s mind: the coach is ready to give Chukwueze a new chance.
