Illness forces Sweden’s Rickard Rakell out of World Cup

Sweden has had to make yet another roster replacement for the World Cup of Hockey after Rickard Rakell was forced to exit due to a stomach virus. Patrik Berglund of the St. Louis Blues will take the place of the Anaheim Ducks forward.

The illness that’s sidelining Rakell is possibly related to an appendectomy he had last spring, his agent told Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register.

“He is in enormous pain and can’t eat at all,” Rakell’s agent told Stephens. “So they put him [in a] hospital to give him IV and stop the pain.”

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Rakell joins Alex Steen (who Rakell replaced), Robin Lehner, Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall as players Sweden has had to replace due to injury since they announced their final roster.

According to Frank Seravalli of TSN, World Cup teams have until 3:30 p.m. ET Friday to make replacements. There is one exception, however. Should a team fall under the minimum number of 18 skaters and two goalies on their roster, then they can make a call up during the tournament. Given this is preseason for these guys and the intensity of some of the exhibition games so far, you can pretty much expect a handful of swaps at some point over the next two weeks.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy