Lysacek out of Worlds

Reigning U.S. National Champion and World medalist Evan Lysacek has withdrawn from next week's world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden , the Chicago Tribune reports. Lysacek injured himself in practice on Wednesday. Lysacek reportedly broke a skate blade last week and has been repeatedly falling on his triple axel while trying to find a workable replacement blade.

According to the article:

Lysacek said x-rays taken in an emergency room showed nothing broken. He will be replaced by Jeremy Abbott, fourth finisher at the U.S. Championships. That means the U.S. men's team in Sweden will have two senior world meet debutants, Abbott and Stephen Carriere, and no one who has won a world medal in the past.

Its leader, three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir, was 8th at last year's worlds. The finishes of the top two men must add up to 13 points or fewer for the United States to have three men's entrants at the 2009 worlds.

That seems unlikely.