Sydney Swans co-captain Adam Goodes will miss the next six weeks after scans revealed he suffered a tear of his left quad during the fourth quarter of Saturday night’s clash against the Adelaide Crows at the SCG.

Swans coach John Longmire confirmed the news at this afternoon's press conference and said Goodes will be as professional in his rehab as he is on the field.

“He’s got a high quad tear, so unfortunately he will probably be out for about six weeks," Longmire said.

"It may be longer, it may be shorter, but I can't sit here today and say it will be this amount of weeks for sure.

"Goodesy normally recovers really well, but with this injury we have to be careful not to push him too hard even when he's feeling well."

“I’ve been able to see Goodsey play for a long period of time and I knew that he’d never pulled up as quickly as that so we thought that something might have been wrong and the scans showed that there was a reasonable tear there.

“He’s disappointed that he’s not playing obviously, and he hasn’t missed too many games over a 300 game career, but he’s a tremendously positive person and is fantastic with his rehab and has amazing powers of recuperation, so I’m sure he’s going to do everything he possibly can to get back as quick as he can.”

Goodes, who kicked five goals on Saturday night, has missed just seven matches since making his AFL debut in 1999.

Longmire said the club will be not cutting any corners when it comes to the co-captain’s return to the side.

“I spoke to him today and he said he felt something, but thought he could almost run it out and that’s been his attitude all along, and that’s why he’s played so much football because he is remarkably strong-minded,” he said.

“The reality is though that we need to be reasonably conservative with it because we don’t want to do any more damage.

“We know how important Adam Goodes is for us, so we won’t be putting him at risk any more than what we need to.”

Goodes’ injury will pose a headache for the Swan coaching staff ahead of this weekend’s match against the Tigers, but Longmire said Goodes’ exclusion should not affect the team’s performance.

“We only played North Melbourne a couple of weeks ago (without Goodes) and were able to kick 17 goals, so I think this is a tremendous opportunity for a lot of players both in the team and outside the team to make sure they step up over this period of time in which Goodsey is out,” he said.

“I look at the West Coast Eagles and what they’ve been able to do and they sit undefeated on top of the ladder with three or four of their best players out of the team.

“That’s what good teams do, they’re resilient and they get on the job, and that’s what our challenge is to try and do.”