It’s been a stop-and-go campaign for the 22-year-old, who was lost again to the Blues on Saturday.
Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard has said he couldn’t afford to take a chance on Christian Pulisic after he was excluded from his squad for Saturday’s trip to Everton.
Pulisic has struggled with injuries this season and with Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi currently out, Lampard said he was not going to risk the US international for the game at Goodison Park.
However, he expressed some hope that Pulisic could return for Tuesday night’s Premier League clash against Wolves.
“Christian has a little bit of a consciousness in his hamstring,” Lampard told reporters before the game. “He’s been training for the week, but he felt some awareness and we just can’t risk it.”
“We have seen two wingers go down recently, Ziyech last week and Callum in training. We are coming into a very busy period in the season. As we keep saying, the players are suffering a lot of muscle injuries.
“Christian wasn’t quite ready, but hopefully by Tuesday night we’ll find out next week.”
Pulisic has endured an injury-filled season as he has been limited to just eight total appearances with the Blues. He missed several games early in the campaign while recovering from a hamstring injury suffered in last season’s FA Cup final, while then he missed more time in October and November with another problem in the hamstring.
The American international played 60 minutes against Leeds last weekend after entering the game in the first half for an injured Ziyech. He would continue to score in the second half when the Blues won 3-1.
After that match, they left him on the bench for Chelsea’s midweek draw against Krasnodar in the Champions League.
After the Krasnodar match, Lampard said that Pulisic’s hamstring had become a problem again, though he refrained from calling it an injury and insisted he would be ready to face Everton.
“Christian is a work in progress,” Lampard said before the trip to Goodison Park. “I don’t want to call this a midweek injury. If the game had been a different kind of game, then maybe I would have used it.
“We know his skills and that’s very clear. He showed them when he faced Leeds midweek. I just have to find the best way to get him out of him consistently. Christian had a bit of a conscience at the back of El Leeds plays on one of his hamstrings, but he’s training normally so we should be as we were. “