Lysacek injured while practicing

Now it’s not only the U.S. women who are in danger of winding up with only two places at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles.

The U.S. men’s future prospects also are in jeopardy after reigning U.S. champion Evan Lysacek withdrew from next week’s world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, after injuring himself in practice Wednesday at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.

Lysacek, a two-time world bronze medalist, hurt his left forearm, elbow and shoulder after falling on a triple axel jump. He had been repeatedly falling on the jump since breaking a skate blade last week and being unable to find a workable replacement.

In a statement issued by U.S. Figure Skating, Lysacek said is wearing a sling and soft cast and has been advised by doctors not to jump or spin for the next two weeks. Lysacek said X-rays taken in an emergency room showed nothing broken.

Lysacek 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 eighth 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.

The U.S. women also probably will struggle to get the necessary finishes with two world debutantes and a slumping Kimmie Meissner, the 2006 world champion.

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.