Christian Pulisic suffers injury setback as ankle causes concern

AC Milan continue to be plagued by injury problems, with top scorer Christian Pulisic now ruled out for Sunday’s Serie A game against Roma after suffering a setback during his recovery, coach Paulo Fonseca said.

However, eighth-placed Milan, who were missing eight players from their 1-0 win over Verona on December 20, expect striker Álvaro Morata to return to the squad, Fonseca told reporters on Saturday.

“I expected Pulisic. He’s doing well, he’s recovered from his calf problems, but he’s had ankle problems for the last two days,” the coach said of the US international.

“It arose in the recovery process and he is not ready to play tomorrow, not even for the bench.”

Fonseca said that while Morata and Ismaël Bennacer were doing well, England midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek would not be back until next week, while Yunus Musah and Rafael Leão would try to get fit for next Friday’s Italian Super Cup game against Juventus be.

“We’ll have 11 anyway,” the 51-year-old coach added.

Fonseca, who previously coached Roma for two years, said it was special to face his former club.

“Roma is a great club; they have a great team… I have a lot of friends there,” he said. “But… in the 90 minutes I only thought about winning.”

Milan, who have 26 points from 16 games, sit five points behind the top five and frustrated fans booed their performance earlier this month. Fonseca said it was too early to write off his team.

“The mood is good. I couldn’t be more positive after the last few training sessions,” he added.