CFL official Ben Major takes Kyries Hebert’s cleat to the face, finishes game (VIDEO)

So much for Ben Major being long past his days of playing hurt at Molson Stadium.

The umpire on a football officiating crew, who is positioned in the middle of the field, has to show physical courage, but this is something else. On Friday night, there was widespread concern for the 10-year veteran official after Major's face cut open by the cleat of Montreal Alouettes linebacker Kyries Hebert. It was a freak collision; during quarterback sneak, Hebert was blocked by Toronto Argonauts halfback Curtis Steele right at the end of the play. Hebert's foot flew upward and struck Major, who was converging on the pile.

Major, who played middle linebacker on the same field for the McGill University Redmen in the early 1990s, sustained an 11-stitch cut. Fortunately, he did not suffer a concussion. After getting repairs, he returned for the final two quarters of Toronto's 31-5 win.

The kicker, as TSN analyst Duane Forde reported, is that Major and his family are scheduled to leave on a family vacation on Saturday. Forde joked that Major, whose face was heavily bandaged, would have to be Photoshopped into any family pictures.

You've heard the cliché about the quarterback who play with a linebacker mentality. Apparently that helps with being a CFL referee.

Major, a 41-year-old Montrealer, earned a lot of plaudits for coming back to the action.

That was certainly more impressive than anything the Alouettes' offence accomplished on the night. Montreal managed a meager 123 passing yards, failed to get into the end zone and coughed up a pick-six interception-return touchdown to Argos linebacker Jamie Robinson late in the game.

(S/t: @AndrewBucholtz, @EarlZukerman.)

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (video: TSN).