Sydney will miss livewire Tom Papley for at least one more match but legendary forward Lance Franklin is touch-and-go for Monday's AFL clash with Hawthorn.
Papley hasn't played yet this season but trained on Tuesday and is expected to return in the following match against the Brisbane Lions, with the in-form Swans opting against rushing him back from his hamstring injury.
"Tom Papley trained (on Tuesday) and trained flat-out, did the whole session and then some extra conditioning on top," Sydney coach John Longmire told reporters.
"(He) pulled up really well, trained really well, we expect him to have another session on Friday.
"He definitely won't be playing on Monday because we want to just get another week of training under his belt ... he'll be playing hopefully next week is the plan."
Meanwhile, Franklin missed the weekend's 63-point thrashing of West Coast with a broken finger, but Longmire did not rule the 35-year-old out of the coming game.
He did, though, point to the form of Logan McDonald and Hayden McLean as encouragement they could handle the absence of the star veteran.
"We'll see how the week progresses, we'll make that decision when we've got all the information in front of us and that won't happen until the end of the week," Longmire said of Franklin.
"His finger is getting better all the time ... we'll just let that pan out.
"A couple of the young key forwards came in and did a good job for us, and that's important, with Franklin and Papley and (Sam) Wicks (out), that's half of our starting six of our forward group."
Despite missing some key personnel, the Swans are 4-1 this season with the sublime form of Isaac Heeney making him one of the AFL's hottest players.
Heeney is averaging 20 disposals and seven tackles per game, while he's also slotted 11 goals in four games.
"We've always known Isaac's a quality player who works really hard on his game and when you've got those two combinations, generally you're going to play pretty well most weeks," Longmire said.
"He's been terribly hampered by injuries over the last few years ... he's very mentally strong to be able to fight through with injuries.
"His body's been feeling well, feeling really good, that's a real key."
