Lance Franklin will miss the first two rounds of the AFL season while Sam Reid is also unlikely to feature in Sydney’s round-one clash with Adelaide on Saturday.
The news means the Swans will be without two of their most experienced forwards for the game at Adelaide Oval, which is set to take place behind closed doors amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The Swans are eager to get more training into Franklin, who is working his way back from January knee surgery, and Reid (calf) but Isaac Heeney (thumb) is ready to go.
“Lance is not going to play this week,” Sydney coach John Longmire said.
“It was, I guess, always a long shot that he was going to be right but he won’t be playing this week (and) he won’t be playing next week.
“So he needs a couple of weeks of training, we need to get some more training under his belt.
“Isaac Heeney should be fine to go, so we expect him to be out there.”
Sydney’s forward stocks are further hit by Reid’s likely absence.
The versatile tall has been dealing with a calf issue through pre-season.
“Sam is unlikely to play round one at this stage,” Longmire said. “We wanted to get some more training into him.
“So, hopefully, we’ll see that next week, how he goes – he’s been training well.”
Longmire said his side had recovered from a number of January injury concerns and put together a training block he felt would hold them in good stead for the season.
With the coronavirus outbreak front of mind, Sydney have implemented a number of strategies to minimise player contact, including keeping players in small groups.
“Even though we understand that we have a game to prepare for on Saturday, (we’re in) small groups as much as we can and trying to make sure that the practices that we put in place around the footy club are as good as they can be,” Longmire said.
“Any meetings we have very small numbers in large meeting rooms. We understand the players have to train and they’ll be training.
“But we’re trying to minimise the chances that our players have of contact with each other, but also the greater community.”