Magali Harvey left off Canada's Olympic rugby sevens team: report

The 2014 World Rugby women’s player of the year may not be on Canada’s rugby sevens squad heading to the Rio Olympic Games in less than a month, according to a report from a Quebec newspaper.

Magali Harvey, who hails from Quebec City and was voted the world's top 15s player in 2014 -- a year that included a celebrated length-of-the-field try in the World Cup -- has been left off Rugby Canada’s 12-player team that will be competing to Rio, stated a story in the Journal de Quebec, a French publication.

The official team isn’t set to be announced until Friday morning in Victoria, B.C., but the newspaper listed sources saying Harvey’s name is not on the official roster. The Journal de Quebec also quotes Harvey’s father in French as calling the move a “bogus decision."

“Try to make me believe that Magali Harvey would be the 13th player of a national team in any country of the world," he’s quoted saying in French.

Canada’s women’s rugby sevens squad enters the Olympics as the third-ranked team after finishing the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series behind only Australia and New Zealand. Harvey, who was on the squad that won Pan Am gold in Toronto last summer, missed all but two series events this season after an injury sidelined her for more than five months. But the absences didn't prevent Harvey from being among the most high-profile of Rio hopefuls over the past year or so.

Just last week Canadian sports retailer Sport Chek's latest #WhatItTakes ad takes a closer look at her bumpy road that apparently may not be headed to Brazil after all.