Sydney have left star Adam Goodes out of their side for Saturday night’s AFL semi-final against Carlton at ANZ Stadium.
In a major blow for the defending premiers, Goodes is also no chance to resume during this finals series.
Coach John Longmire told the club website that the star forward and midfielder was unable to complete Thursday training.
“Adam trained as hard as he had for quite a while on Tuesday and pulled up okay (on Wednesday), but he was a little bit sore in the warm-up today and, therefore, we decided not to push him,” Longmire said on Thursday evening.
“It is not a case of him having reinjured his knee – he’s still fine – but the intensity of Tuesday’s session meant that it was hard for him to back it up again today, so that’s his season done.
“It is obviously disappointing, but the reality is that Adam hasn’t played for a significant amount of time and we have a great deal of confidence in the group of players who are available.”
Goodes has been out of action since suffering a knee injury in round 13.
The Swans made two changes, with Ben McGlynn (calf) ruled out and Gary Rohan dropped.
Shane Biggs and Harry Cunningham will play their first AFL finals.
The Blues made no changes, but ruckman Matthew Kreuzer is yet to confirm he has recovered from the calf muscle injury he suffered in last Sunday’s elimination final win over Richmond.
Brock McLean, who was a late withdrawal with a quad injury, was named as an emergency.
As expected, Geelong recalled key forward Tom Hawkins for Friday night’s semi-final against Port Adelaide at the MCG.
But Hawkins remains a day-to-day proposition with his back injury.
They also recalled Josh Hunt and Taylor Hunt.
Apart from losing Corey Enright (knee) and Josh Caddy (ankle), the Cats dropped Josh Walker.
Port Adelaide are unchanged.