​Christian Pulisic drew heavy critique after the U.S. men’s national team was eliminated in the Round of 16 by Belgium, with former USWNT star Carli Lloyd among the sternest critics. Yet the news of Pulisic’s microfracture and bone bruise isn’t likely to move the Fox Sports analyst to offer an apology. In fact, she doubled down and went so far as to misrepresent how available Pulisic was over the past year.
When a fan pressed Lloyd on Twitter to apologize to Pulisic in light of the injury updates, she claimed that her remarks were unrelated to his postgame comments about resting. Nevertheless, she noted that Pulisic skipped the Gold Cup to rest for the club season and this World Cup, stating, “He ended up resting the whole year. That’s the facts.” But those statements aren’t factual.
Pulisic did not rest the entire year. He played in 30 Serie A matches for AC Milan and logged more than 1,600 minutes. Although he was less impactful for his club at the turn of the year, he began the season strongly, tallying 10 goals and 2 assists across all competitions before that 2026 scoring drought set in. In 2026, his only goal contributions were two assists.
There is room to criticize Pulisic for opting out of the Gold Cup, given his struggles during much of this World Cup. However, Lloyd’s assertion that he “rested all year” crosses into a personal framing of fiction as fact, which is not accurate. Lloyd isn’t obligated to apologize for her postgame take, but her most recent tweet came across as unnecessary. Those are the facts. This piece originally appeared on For The Win: Carli Lloyd refused to apologize to Christian Pulisic while erroneously claiming he rested all year, for better SEO.