Sydney Swans forward Lance Franklin has undergone surgery on a broken finger sustained during the Swans Round 4 victory over North Melbourne.
The No.23 suffered the injury during a contest in the third quarter of Sydney’s victory over North Melbourne at the SCG on Saturday.
Franklin consulted with a specialist on Monday afternoon who confirmed that surgery was the best course of action.
Sydney Swans Executive GM – Football Charlie Gardiner said Franklin should be ready to return to play in two to three weeks.
“Lance underwent a fairly straightforward procedure late yesterday afternoon, where he had a small plate inserted over the finger. We will monitor his healing over the next few days, but currently expect him to be available to return in two to three weeks,” Gardiner said.
Speaking with media on Monday afternoon, Longmire confirmed Franklin would be sidelined for a couple of weeks.
“He’s going to see a specialist this afternoon, at this stage we expect him to have a minor operation on his finger and be out for a couple of weeks," Longmire said.
“At this stage we expect him to be out for a couple of weeks, maybe three worst case scenario, but we’ll know more this afternoon.”
After strong performances in the VFL, Longmire said young key forwards Logan McDonald and Joel Amartey were options to be recalled to the team this week.
McDonald impressed with 3 goals, 17 disposals and 11 marks while Amartey kicked four majors from 12 disposals and six marks.
"We'll see how they pull up and we'll make that call later in the week, but we feel like we've got some options there," Longmire said.
"Obviously no one can replace Lance, and we don’t expect it. But to come in and play that key forward role, we feel like we've got a couple of players who can come in and do that."
Longmire also provided an update on small forward Tom Papley due to his hamstring injury sustained in the Swans practice match against GWS at the end of February.
"No he is not (a chance to play). He is upping his training. It was a significant injury with his hamstring. He's been training now for a few weeks but only at 80 per cent pace, so he hasn’t gone to that next level which we expect him to do this week and next week. Hopefully a couple of weeks of really hard training for him before we are able to pick him," he said.
"We thought it was originally going to be a six-week injury when he first went out; it was a reasonable injury there in his hamstring. We initially planned on that, but it will be that and a week or two more if we look at the whole extent of it.
"There hasn’t been any setbacks. It's just being conservative in terms of being back to full speed running. We haven’t got to maximum speed which we hope to do this week and next week. He is clearly a critical player for us and we hope to get him back, but it certainly won't be this week."
