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Five days after the MLS Disciplinary Committee suspended Real Salt Lake center back Jamison Olave one game, it circled back to RSL to once again serve another suspension to another key player.

While not officially announced, the committee will suspend RSL midfielder Sunday Stephen a game for his contact made with Portland Timbers forward Fanendo Adi in Saturday's 1-0 loss at Providence Park. "Sunny" will miss RSL's home match against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium. RSL coach Jeff Cassar first explained the scenario during his interview on ESPN700 Tuesday after training.

In the 42nd minute of Portland's win over the weekend, Adi and Sunny challenged for a loose ball near midfield. Adi left both feet in order to reach the ball first, but missed. Sunny, in an attempt to shield Adi's slide for the ball, came down directly on the right shin of the Timbers' leading scorer with his left foot. Adi, who scored the game-winner Saturday which was also his seventh goal in his last eight games against RSL, stayed down for an extended period of time while grabbing at his right leg in pain.

"We understand what their reasoning is and we've gone back and looked at the video," RSL general manager Craig Waibel said Tuesday afternoon. "We're not in a position to dispute it. We don't think the intent was to injure, and certainly it didn't. We also understand what the committee saw."

Sunny's suspension will be RSL's third handed down by the MLS Disciplinary Committee in 2016. Forward Burrito Martinez was suspended a game in late March after a dangerous foul on Portland's Darlington Nagbe. Olave was suspended for smacking L.A. Galaxy defender Daniel Steres in the head in last Wednesday's 3-3 draw at home.

"The intent of the committee is to try to alleviate and clean up some of the things in our league that we've all agreed need to be addressed," Waibel said. "The frustrating part is when we feel it could've been prevented. In this particular situation, I feel the whistle should've been blown for a foul committed previous to the later foul. There's always two sides to it. For the actual suspension itself, it's one that we understand the committee's been making consistently."

With midfielder Javier Morales (quadriceps injury) recovering and Sunny slated to miss the match against the Dynamo, RSL's midfield depth will certainly be put to the test. The 1-0 loss to Portland was Sunny's first MLS start since June 22 when he suffered multiple facial fractures in an on-field collision.

After surgery to correct the fractures, Sunny missed 12 regular-season matches. Following the loss, Sunny and fellow Nigerian Adi actually exchanged jerseys at midfield.

-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani