Chelsea's Christian Pulisic among UK-based players who could miss US qualifier at Panama

Britain requires anyone visiting a nation on its red list to quarantine upon arrival in England for 10 days. An October 10 match in Panama followed by the game in Columbus would rule out Pulisic from playing for Chelsea in its Premier League match at Brentford on October 16 and a home Champions League game against Malmo on October 20.

Published : Sep 18, 2021 08:23 IST

The British government is keeping Panama on its red list, which means the United States may have to be without star Christian Pulisic and several other U.K.-based players for its World Cup qualifier at the Central American nation on October 10.

The U.S. plays at Panama between home matches against Jamaica on October 7 at Austin, Texas, and vs. Costa Rica on October 13 at Columbus, Ohio.

Britain requires anyone visiting a nation on its red list to quarantine upon arrival in England for 10 days. An October 10 match in Panama followed by the game in Columbus would rule out Pulisic from playing for Chelsea in its Premier League match at Brentford on October 16 and a home Champions League game against Malmo on October 20.

U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter could be forced to leave Pulisic and other British-based players in the U.S. for training between the two qualifiers, which may cause Berhalter to bring a larger group to camp.

 

Pulisic was among five England-based players on the U.S. roster for the opening three qualifiers in September: a 0-0 draw at El Salvador, a 1-1 home draw against Canada and a 4-1 win at Honduras.

Pulisic injured an ankle during the second half at Honduras on September 8. He missed Chelsea's 3-0 win at Aston Villa last weekend and a 1-0 Champions League victory over Zenit St. Petersburg on Tuesday. He will not dress for Sunday's match at Tottenham.

“Christian Pulisic is in individual training and trying to come back as fast as possible to team training," Chelsea manager Thomas Tuechel said Friday.

Other England-based U.S. players on the September roster were Manchester City goalkeeper Zack Stefen, Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Ethan Horvath, Norwich forward Josh Sargent and Fulham defenders Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson.

 

Steffen missed the three matches because of back spasms and a positive COVID-19 test.

The British government said Friday that it would shift on October 4 from a three-tier system of green, amber and red nations — low, medium and high risk — to a two-tier system of red and open. While eight countries are being removed from the red list as of next Wednesday, Panama was not among those being changed.

Premier League clubs blocked players from travelling to South American nations for qualifiers this month, among them Brazil's Alisson, Fabinho, Roberto Firmino (Liverpool); Ederson, Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City); Thiago Silva (Chelsea); Fred (Manchester United); Richarlison (Everton); and Raphinha (Leeds).

A qualifier between Brazil and Argentina in Sao Paulo was suspended in the seventh minute on September 5 when local health officials walked onto the field and attempted to remove three players whom they said didn’t comply with coronavirus restrictions.

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