Ruckman Sam Naismith will miss Sydney Derby XII after injuring his knee at training.

Scans revealed a strain to Naismith’s medial ligament after an incident during the team’s final training session at the SCG before flying to Perth.

Head of Football Tom Harley confirmed the injury would sideline Naismith for at least the next two weeks.

“It is not a disastrous injury by any stretch but he is still in the recovery stage,” Harley said.

“It was an innocuous training drill, he was doing some stoppage work with the other midfielders and one of his teammates just fell across his knee.

“Clearly it is disappointing for a player to injure themselves at training so we will be without Sam for a couple of weeks.”

One man who will be lining up against the Giants on Saturday is Kurt Tippett, after the big man recovered from an ankle injury.

“He (Tippett) was really close last week coming off a six-day break and heading over to Perth left us a day or so short,” Harley said.

“Kurt is due to train the full load this week so we are not expecting any issues with him regarding his availability.”

Isaac Heeney, Jarrad McVeigh and Gary Rohan will all push their claims for a return to the senior side to face the Giants after overcoming injury concerns.