Christian Pulisic hasn’t played for Chelsea since New Year’s Day due to an adductor injury and Frank Lampard has revealed the USMNT star suffered a setback as he tried to return.

Pulisic, 21, returned to training last week, as Pro Soccer Talk understands Pulisic was back in training last Tuesday after almost four weeks out.

However, speaking after Chelsea’s 2-2 draw at Leicester City on Saturday, Lampard revealed that the Blues tried to rush Pulisic back and he suffered a setback.

“We tried to get him out there last week, step it up a little bit, but we had to pull out of that,” Lampard said. “The break might have come at a good time, it buys us a couple of weeks. Of course you miss him. He’s a quality player and he was having a really good patch pre-Christmas. Others have to stand up too, but of course we’ll be happy when he’s back.”

Chelsea’s official website added that it is “hard to say when the player could be back” as their next game comes against Manchester United on Feb. 17 following the winter break.

There’s no doubt Chelsea have missed Pulisic as Lampard admitted as much to Pro Soccer Talk following their recent draw with Arsenal. Willian, Pedro and Callum Hudson-Odoi are all very similar wingers and Pulisic provides that extra spark of ingenuity and creativity in attack.

All of Chelsea’s last four goals in the Premier League have come from set piece situations. In their last three games since Pulisic has been out they have have lost to Newcastle and drawn with Arsenal and Leicester despite dominating large spells of those games as they failed to break oppositions defenses open in the final third.

Make no mistake about it, Pulisic’s stock has risen substantially over the last month since he was injured. That is the silver lining to the American winger missing a key chuck of Chelsea’s season as their gap to fifth-place has now been cut to just four points.

Chelsea need Pulisic to return as fast as possible, hence why they tried to push for an early return which didn’t work out.

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