Pochettino insists Pulisic row is in the past ahead of USMNT return
Christian Pulisic has returned to United States duty, and Mauricio Pochettino does not hold a grudge over his absence from the Gold Cup.
Mauricio Pochettino insists there is no lasting bad blood with United States ace Christian Pulisic over his decision to skip the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The USA talisman opted to sit out the tournament in order to recuperate after a couple of testing seasons with AC Milan in Serie A.
Pulisic did want to play in a couple of pre-tournament friendlies, but head coach Pochettino opted against fielding him.
The USA made the final of the Gold Cup with a makeshift squad, only to lose 2-1 to Mexico in Houston.
The former Chelsea man was criticised by the likes of Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan over his decision to miss the event, but ahead of Pulisic's likely return against South Korea on Saturday, Pochettino insisted all is well between him and his star attacker.
"For me, it's in the past. This type of thing happens, we all make mistakes sometimes because we all read situations in a different way," he told a conference.
"But the most important thing in this situation, we all want to move on and do the right things, it's about being intelligent.
"It's in the past and we can see now with different players, Christian is happy to be here, of course he is an important player for us and I think it's about building for the World Cup and I think the mood is good. All is behind us."
The fixture at Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey will see Pochettino reunited with Son Heung-min, the South Korea superstar who was so influential for him at Tottenham and recently completed a move to Los Angeles FC after 10 years in the Premier League.
"It's going to be an amazing opportunity to see each other, we really love each other, he was a very important player, one of the most important players in my period at Tottenham," he added.
"I was always chasing him when I was at Southampton. I tried to sign him. When we moved to Tottenham, we chased again and convinced him to join us.
"He is a legend at Tottenham, one of the best players in the world, an amazing player, an amazing person, unbelievable. It's going to be really, really nice."
