Scans clear Franklin of serious injury
Scans have cleared Lance Franklin of serious damage to his knee and Sydney expect their prized recruit to take on Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday night.
Sam Reid (achilles) and Kurt Tippett (ribs) are in line to return against the Lions should they train freely on Thursday, while Adam Goodes pulled up well after his first game in 10 months.
Franklin was substituted out of his AFL side’s clash with Melbourne last Saturday night due to an ongoing knee niggle he first sustained in round three against Adelaide.
Swans coach John Longmire predicted the $10 million man would be right to play the Lions.
“Structurally he’s fine,” Longmire said of the result of Monday’s scans.
“His knee is still a bit bruised … it’s a bit tender.
“It’s a bit swollen this morning, that’s why he had the scan.
“But at this stage we expect him to play.”
Longmire predicted it would be another light week on the track for Franklin.
“He hasn’t done a heap of training over the last couple of weeks, so we expect him to probably have a similar week,” he said.
Tippett, having suffered broken ribs while playing for the club’s seconds in his return from a knee injury, ran well on Monday.
“We’ll see how he moves on Thursday,” Longmire said.
“He hasn’t done any training with the group since he got injured.”
Reid appears more likely to be called on, having been listed as an emergency for the victory over the Demons.
“He is actually training and trained really well (last) Thursday and was putting his hand up for selection,” Longmire said.
Injuries have prevented Franklin, Tippett, Reid and Goodes from playing together, but Longmire expected they’d all function just fine in the same forward line.
Goodes will be keen to ditch the substitute’s vest, having showed no ill effects after coming on for Franklin in the third quarter against Melbourne.
“He had an impact and provided some real life, so we’re certainly going to discuss him starting in the 21 this week,” Longmire said.
“He’s pulled up really well from the game and we’ll just decide on his role later on.”