Mauricio Pochettino noncommittal on Christian Pulisic status for Australia game: ‘We’ll see’

US men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino offered very little clarity on the injury status of playmaker Christian Pulisic on Thursday, casting further doubt on his availability before the Americans’ second World Cup group-stage match against Australia on Friday. “I think as you know he was training individually all week,” Pochettino told reporters at his pre-match press conference. “Like always, I think tonight or the day before the game we have a meeting with our medical area, we will assess the whole group, and tomorrow we will communicate if we agree on something tonight. He is evolving, he is much better from Friday, we’ll see.” Pulisic injured his calf in training last week and was pulled at half-time of the USMNT’s 4-1 victory over Paraguay after aggravating the injury. He has been following what US Soccer has deemed a “modified training program” ever since, with US players and coaches offering little else in the way of clarity. The Milan midfielder was not seen with the full group in the portions of training open to media this week at the team’s training base in Irvine, California. Pulisic was in the auxiliary gym next to the team’s training pitch on Monday and Tuesday, then emerged on to the field with trainers doing drills with a ball on Wednesday. After arriving in Seattle, Pulisic trained separately from the rest of the squad again on Thursday at the University of Washington’s soccer complex. …