Boston Cannons star midfielder Paul Rabil fractured the fifth metatarsal of his left foot in Saturday night's game against the Florida Launch and will miss the Cannons' regular-season finale and the rest of the year, the team confirmed Sunday.
Rabil was injured during the second quarter against Florida and missed the second half. He'll have surgery this week on the broken foot, but the team said he will be present Saturday on the sideline when the Cannons play Rochester with a playoff berth on the line.
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Heading into the final week of the MLL season, Boston and the Ohio Machine are battling for the league's fourth and final postseason spot.
Rabil will now undergo surgery for the second time in a year, after a career in which he didn't have a single sport-related surgery until work to repair torn abdominals last September. He missed parts of the tryout process for Team USA after that, but rehabbed was named an All-World midfielder after the U.S.'s loss to Canada in the gold medal game July 19 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo.
The injury to the fifth metatarsal (the long bone on the outside of the foot that connects to the pinky toe) is the same injury that eventual Tewaaraton Award winner Rob Pannell sustained in what was to be his senior season at Cornell in 2012. A timetable for healing after surgery could range from weeks to months.
Rabil, a two-time MLL MVP, currently ranks second in MLL in points this season with 54 on 20 goals and 33 assists, trailing only Casey Powell (62 points). Cannons attackman Will Manny rankes third leaguewide with 51 points.
The Cannons' 16-15 win Saturday kept their hopes alive. This weekend, the Cannons (6-7) need both a win over Rochester and an Ohio (6-7) loss to Florida. That scenario would leave the Cannons and Machine tied for fourth place with 7-7 records, and the Cannons would have the tiebreaker with a series sweep over Ohio in both their meetings. A Cannons loss on Saturday or an Ohio win would leave the Cannons out of the MLL playoffs for the second consecutive season.
Rochester (9-4), Denver (9-4) and New York (8-5) have already clinched playoff spots in the four-team tournament. The top two seeds host semifinal games Aug. 16 and the final is Aug. 23 at Kennesaw State University just outside Atlanta.
In other injury news, 2014 Tewaaraton Award finalist and No. 1 overall MLL draft pick of Ohio, midfielder Tom Schreiber, fractured his wrist against Denver July 26 and missed the Machine's 17-15 win over Rochester on Saturday.
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