The white-hot criticism of Christian Pulisic since the USMNT’s World Cup elimination may need to take a beat.

Pulisic has been diagnosed with a microfracture and bone bruise of the tibia and fibula in his right leg suffered during the Round of 16 loss to Belgium on Monday, U.S. Soccer announced, saying that it will collaborate with AC Milan on a recovery plan.

It is understood that Pulisic had an X-ray and MRI on Tuesday morning to determine the diagnosis, and reporting from The Athletic indicates he would have missed the rest of the tournament had the U.S. advanced.

“I just totally twisted my ankle and my knee in one play,” Pulisic said after the loss.

He went down for an extended period after kicking the leg of Youri Tielemans on an attempted shot, then came off in the 59th minute for Sebastian Berhalter.

That, in combination with postgame comments to Fox’s Jenny Taft saying he can now get a rest, have led to a pile-on of criticism for the USMNT’s most famous face.

Landon Donovan and Tim Howard both took him to task on their podcast this week.

“People are fed up with the way things are handled around him,” Donovan said. “And it’s not necessarily him, but it’s his agent, his family, his hangers-on, the people whoa re influencing. People are fed up with it. … They treat people poorly.”

“I think he’s a nice footballer,” Howard said. “I still think he’s the best player on the team. Outside of that, you’d have to ask me very specific questions to which I could give very direct answers.”

“You rest when your playing career is over,” USWNT legend and Fox commentator Carli Lloyd tweeted. “Period.”

Pulisic, who suffered a left calf injury earlier in the World Cup and missed the Australia match, had an incredibly disappointing competition. Outside of the first 45 minutes against Paraguay, after which he left the game injured, he never was able to impose himself, and for the past two days, a narrative has festered that he begged out of the match against Belgium.

The injury news, at least, means that narrative is not true. Pulisic, however, will still need to grapple with the massive hit to his reputation.

“I thought my level was high,” Pulisic said postgame, asked to assess his performance this summer. “Yeah, it’s disappointing. I didn’t quite have the moments I was hoping to, to try to help us to really push and get over this next step, beating a really good team. So I’m disappointed. For myself, of course, but I’m gonna try to stay positive. I did a lot of good things and the team did as well. I think it is going to take time to get over that hump. I’m not in a good place to answer it right now.

Cherundolo, a USMNT legend with 87 career caps and a successful coaching career at LAFC in MLS from 2022-25, was believed to be a potential candidate for the senior national team if Mauricio Pochettino — whose status has yet to be determined — were to leave.

With no sporting director yet hired to fill Matt Crocker’s role, USSF COO Dan Helfrich led the search, with vice president of sporting Oguchi Onyewu playing a key role as well.