Swans physiotherapist Matt Cameron said despite scans showing positive signs early on, last Tuesday’s surgery indicated that the 29-year-old would require more time to recover from his injury.
“He had an arthroscope last Tuesday and whilst we’d had an MRI beforehand and we could see there was some cartilage damage there, in the arthroscope they found a little bit more joint surface cartilage damage,” Cameron told SwansTV.
“We need to tidy that up a little bit, which means he will be out for a little bit longer.
“It’s an injury that can really be a little bit unpredictable and one we have to be a little bit more careful with, so it could even push out to eight weeks with him out of the game.”
Cameron added that Roberts-Thomson’s return from the injury would largely depend on his recovery over the next few weeks.
“It is a bit disappointing, but it’s a bit unpredictable and if things go well we might be able to get an early return,” he said.
“We’re guided a bit by how his knee feels when he starts loading it up again running, but at this stage we are looking at something a bit longer.”
Swans defender Rhyce Shaw will face a fitness test ahead of Sunday’s round six clash with the Brisbane Lions after three weeks on the sidelines with an abdominal injury.
Cameron said Shaw would be assessed in both tomorrow and Friday’s training sessions.
“He’s running well at the moment and he ran really fast yesterday and he’s due to start training with the team on Wednesday,” he said.
“It’s now been a three week injury so we won’t be taking a chance if we feel he’s not quite right or hasn’t had quite enough preparation to put himself out there under the rigours of playing footy.
“We’ll be guided on how he copes at training on Wednesday and Friday.”
In other injury news, Cameron confirmed that Gary Rohan will make his long awaited return to team training over the next week after more than 12 months out of the game with a fractured tibia.
“Gary is running really well and has done lots of speed and agility work and he’s ready to start training with the team,” he said.
“He’s going to do some individual sessions this week with the footy and we’ll have him in with the team next week.”
