SYDNEY Swans ruckman Mark Seaby has been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
Club physiotherapist Matt Cameron said Seaby would need to have surgery next week to remove bone spurs on his ankle.
Seaby broke his left ankle in the opening minute of the round six match against Brisbane and was expected to miss up to 12 weeks following surgery to repair the fracture.
However his progression has now been halted by the ankle problem.
“The fracture healed well,’’ Cameron said. “This is related to a pre-existing condition in Mark’s ankle and he’ll have an operation next week to remove bone spurs from the ankle joint.’’
In other injury news, Swans coach Paul Roos says Daniel Bradshaw is running again and is likely to join full training next week.
Bradshaw hasn’t played since round nine due to knee and hamstring problems.
“With the hamstring it made it difficult for his knee, as he hasn’t been able to rehab his knee as much with his leg wasted,’’ Roos said.
“He’s back out running, whether it’s next week or the week after I’m not too sure.”
The Swans have been plagued by injuries and Roos admitted defender Craig Bolton may be running out of time to play again this season.
“Four games to go and we still haven’t seen him out on the park training so you’re certainly running out of time,” he said.
Roos said the lack of experienced players has hurt the team.
“The gap’s just too great when we’re playing against teams like Geelong with five or six of our better players out,” Roos said.
“Unfortunately we have a lot of injuries at the moment. Even some of our younger guys like Birdie (Craig Bird) would obviously be in our best team as well but he’s not playing.”
Bird will have a fitness test this week. Talented defenders Nick Smith and Lewis Roberts-Thomson have hamstring injuries and are progressing well but likely to miss this Saturday’s match against Hawthorn.
Gary Rohan has recovered from an ankle injury and Roos said the 19 year old may play seniors again before the end of the 2010 season.
“He played on the weekend (in the reserves). He struggled as you’d imagine after being out for three weeks, but hopefully he’ll get back some fitness and maybe play right at the tail end of the year.”
When asked whether players such as Patrick Veszpremi and key forward Lewis Johnston were getting close to a call-up from the reserves, Roos said younger players had to earn their spot.
“Our seconds have been struggling a little bit. Some of the guys we would have liked to be playing haven’t really been putting enough pressure on the seniors’ guys,’’ Roos said.
“Hopefully we’ll see (Patrick) Veszpremi and Lewis Johnston and guys like that but we want to make sure they earn it. You don’t want to be handing games to guys at this stage of the year regardless.
“We want to try and pick a form team and a good team but we’re a little bit hamstrung at the moment with the amount of guys we have on the sidelines.”
Johnston played well for the reserves on Saturday, kicking five goals in their 39 point win against fourth placed Eastlakes.
Roos said Johnston was getting closer to playing senior footy.
“He’s certainly getting better and improving. What you have to understand is the way we want to get guys to win the football.
“It’s just such a big step up to AFL now, it doesn’t matter whether you come from the VFL, SANFL or the Canberra footy league. He’s improving and knocking on the door which is good.”
The Swans face Hawthorn next Saturday afternoon at the SCG and then Fremantle, the Western Bulldogs and Brisbane.
BUY TICKETS to see the Sydney Swans take on Hawthorn at the SCG on Saturday afternoon. The reserves play the curtain raiser against Queanbeyan, starting at 10.50am. Gates to the SCG open at 10.45am.
Everything you need to know about Saturday's game is just a click away. READ MORE for news on transport, parking, entertainment, activities for the kids and much more...
