If Christian Pulisic is out vs. Australia, it’s a problem for USMNT. Who can solve it?

IRVINE, Calif. — For a third consecutive day here at Great Park in Southern California, U.S. soccer star Christian Pulisic trained separately from his World Cup teammates.

He was spotted in a makeshift gym as Wednesday’s session began, this time with some sort of compression sleeve around his injured left calf area.

Eventually, after a series of body-weight exercises and moderate-speed movements, he jogged out to a field for some light passing with a member of the U.S. team’s performance staff.  A team spokesman said that Pulisic remains “day to day.” Teammates have said he’ll be fine, but as mystery — and perhaps gamesmanship — swirls around Pulisic’s status, the possibility that he might miss Friday’s World Cup match against Australia has at least become real.

And so, the conversation around Pulisic’s health has drifted toward an additional question: If he can’t play, who would replace him?

Pulisic, in some sense, is irreplaceable. He is the USMNT’s attacking catalyst, its best player and one of its three most important. On paper, he is integral to any U.S. game plan for Friday’s match against Australia, which could ultimately decide the Group D winner.

But on the other hand, the World Cup is a long tournament. And the last time the U.S. met the Aussies, Pulisic entered carrying some discomfort; he exited with a true hamstring injury after multiple hard fouls in less than 30 minutes.

So, what if head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his staff decide to rest Pulisic? What if he can’t face the Socceroos?

There are, in theory, six options. Here they are, boiled down to four and ranked from most to least likely:

1. Gio Reyna

A week ago, admittedly, Reyna would not have been at the top of this list. But with him and Pochettino buoyed by the emotion (and vindication) of his late goal against Paraguay, he might actually make the most sense as a Pulisic replacement.

There are a lot of ways in which Reyna can’t replicate Pulisic. But he’s arguably the only one among the U.S. substitutes who could slot into the left half-space — the inside position between Australia’s defenders and midfielders when the U.S. has the ball — and provide similar creativity.

If Pochettino expects Australia to settle in a mid-low block and concede possession, Reyna could be the playmaker to unlock a tight game.

2. Tim Weah

Weah, in a vacuum, is the best player on the U.S. bench. He was a starter in 2022 on the right side. As a vertical winger or wingback, he’s stuck behind Antonee Robinson on the left and Sergiño Dest on the right in Pochettino’s current system. But he could replace Pulisic in one of two ways:

• Weah could play on the left wing, as Pulisic does, and as Weah did under Pochettino back in the fall of 2024. It would just require him cutting inside on his right foot more than he’s used to.

• He could play his more natural position on the right, with Weston McKennie shifting to the left attacking midfield role, and with Sergiño Dest spending more time inside rather than as a traditional winger.

3. Cristian Roldan (or Sebastian Berhalter)

The third option is to push Malik Tillman up into his more customary attacking midfield position alongside McKennie and insert an extra central midfielder next to Tyler Adams.

On one hand, this would disrupt the balance and rhythm that Tillman, McKennie and Adams found on Friday. They were significantly less dynamic when Berhalter replaced Pulisic at halftime. And they shouldn’t need extra defensive midfield solidity against a team like Australia.

On the other hand, Roldan dished two assists against Australia back in October. He plays for the Seattle Sounders, and would ignite an already-frenzied crowd at Lumen Field. His teammates love him. It would not be a shock to see him in the starting 11.

4. Brenden Aaronson (or Alejandro Zendejas)

Aaronson, in some simplistic ways, is probably the closest thing the U.S. has to a like-for-like Pulisic replacement. A slender, shifty attacker who’s somewhere between midfielder and winger, he had a reasonably strong season for Leeds United in the English Premier League.

But he’s nowhere near the playmaker nor the finisher that Pulisic is. At times, he’s a better front-foot defender than attacker. He couldn’t replicate Pulisic’s quality as the attacking catalyst.

Zendejas could be an option as well, but he’s accustomed to playing on the right and cutting inside on his left foot.

The top three options, therefore, seem more likely.

And whatever the outcome, U.S. players seem confident that they can adapt.

“The depth of this team,” Aaronson said Wednesday, “is something that I’ve never seen before.”