As the Montreal Impact prepare to play Philadelphia at Saputo Stadium tomorrow, they'll be without the teams first designated player, Marco Di Vaio. And with a record of 8-13-3, the team can ill afford to lose any player, let alone one earning $1.9 million.

After finally finding his groove (and more importantly the back of the net) eight games in, the former Balogna star is currently back in Italy dealing with a match fixing scandal and is only expected to return to Montreal on Sunday.

Worst case scenario, Di Vaio could could be suspended for up to six months, although the 36 year old vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

Regardless, Impact coach Jesse Marsch says the timing of the whole thing isn’t something they could have anticipated.

“It’s not that it’s frustrating, it’s just unfortunate timing. But we’re confident that when he gets back we can continue to work from where he left off and we know we have a good bench.”

The Impact last played in Philadelphia July 14, a match which ended in a heartbreaking 2-1 loss. Montreal had tied things up in the 89^th minute only to watch as the Union scored two minutes into stoppage time. Impact captain Davy Arnaud says they need to come out on top this time around.

“We need to. But after last time in Philadelphia, it still hurts with the way that game finished. We hope to get a little bit of revenge come Saturday because it’s another big game for us”