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Midfielder Kyle Beckerman will miss the rest of the regular season for slumping Real Salt Lake, after Major League Soccer suspended him for two more games as punishment for head-butting the Chicago Fire's Daniel Paladini last month.

His actions were "completely outside the scope of the game and demonstrated utter disregard for the safety of his opponent," the league said.

Real Salt Lake general manager Garth Lagerwey said in a text that, "We understand the league has made its decision and we will welcome Kyle back for the playoffs. Over the next two weeks we need to focus on attaining the highest possible playoff seeding to best take advantage of Kyle's return."

Beckerman was ejected with a red card for the incident during RSL's 3-0 loss to the Fire on Sept. 28, and automatically suspended for one game and fined $250.

The additional suspension — along with an additional $1,000 fine — comes after league commissioner Don Garber upheld an appeal by the players union of the punishment handed down by the league's disciplinary committee. The veteran team captain already served the first game of his suspension when RSL lost 2-1 at the Los Angeles Galaxy last week.

But he was gone with the U.S. national team when RSL lost 3-0 at Vancouver on Thursday night — its fourth straight loss — and league rules prohibit players from serving suspensions while away on international duty. So Beckerman also must miss his team's last two regular-season games, at Colorado on Oct. 14 and at home against Portland on Oct. 22.

Martin Renzhofer contributed to this story.