Sydney Swans defender Lewis Melican will miss a few weeks due to a hamstring injury but Lance Franklin, Dane Rampe, George Hewett and Sam Naismith are closer to returning following stints on the sidelines.

Ahead of the Sydney Swans Round 8 match against the Melbourne Demons, Head of Physiotherapy and Medical Services Damian Raper provides the latest on the injury front.

Round Seven Recap
Tom McCartin returned in the AFL and played really well and he didn’t sustain any issues with his hamstring tightness so we are expecting him to return as per normal over the next couple of weeks.

This is similar to Robbie Fox, who played in the VFL and got through really well. He had no issues with his hand, having had 8 weeks off after his finger surgery so we are expecting him to be fully available for selection.

We had the one injury from the weekend which was to Lewis Melican. Lewis sustained a hamstring injury in the fourth quarter, and unfortunately will miss the next three weeks.

Tom Hickey’s return
Tom had a PCL rupture initially, sustained in our game against GWS in Round Four. He initially was a little bit sore, had a bit of swelling and it took him 48 hours to settle down. Once he settled down, we saw his function return really quickly.

Talking to Tom, we got a bit of an understanding that he had a few injuries to his PCL back in 2016. We saw Tom’s function return really quickly, he was able to get moving without any instability in his knee. He trained really well last week so we were happy for him to play in the game against Geelong.

George Hewett
George is tracking as per the AFL concussion protocols and he will be a test at training on Thursday.

Dane Rampe
Dane will be a test at training on Thursday, but he is going really well with his finger rehab. The surgeon is really happy with progress so we are hoping he will be available this weekend.

Lance Franklin
Lance has turned the corner and has trained well the last couple of days. He is going to be a test on Thursday this week.

Sam Naismith
Sam has been training for six weeks now, has been training really well and has trained with both the AFL and VFL groups and has been doing some big match loads so we are hoping he will return to play in a couple of weeks.