Landon Donovan has voiced reservations about Christian Pulisic\u2019s capacity to cope with the physical demands of a Premier League return, comments that arrive amid continued transfer speculation. On the Unfiltered Soccer podcast, Tim Howard suggested a move to an English giant could elevate Pulisic, while Donovan highlighted long-term fitness as the key concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a scenario where I think if he is motivated and wants to go prove it, he is capable of it\u2014going to one of these big clubs in England,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cThe one hesitation I have, and this is just speaking from personal experience … the physical part of it is a real thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a phenomenal athlete, he is. But some of the athletes in the Premier League are monsters. I mean monsters. And to do it, 35, 40, 45 times a year at that pace is really hard. I don\u2019t know, physically, if he could do it every single week for two or three years, like some of these guys. Because it\u2019s really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulisic\u2019s injury record at Chelsea is central to Donovan\u2019s point. Transfermarkt documents 13 different injuries across four seasons at Stamford Bridge, absences that added up to 60 missed matches. Since his transfer to AC Milan ahead of the 2023\u201324 season his fitness problems have eased, but consistency has remained an issue.<\/p>\n
In 2025\u201326 Pulisic has already suffered three separate injuries after an explosive start: eight goal contributions in his first seven games for Milan were interrupted by a hamstring injury during the October international break. In the months that followed he has been in and out of the infirmary and his playing time has been irregular. He has scored four times in his last 13 appearances, and all four goals came before the calendar flipped to 2026.<\/p>\n
A return to what is widely considered the most physical and competitive league in the world presents a high risk, high reward scenario for the USMNT. Success at a top English club could lift his international level, but persistent injury or inconsistent minutes could leave Pulisic diminished at club level and deprive the national team of its key player for extended periods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donovan warns Pulisic may struggle with the Premier League\u2019s physical demands and fitness in 2026 ..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1330,969,1163],"tags":[1089,1331],"class_list":["post-6924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ac-milan","category-premier-league","category-transfers","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-christian-pulisic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}