AFL club Hawthorn will be without gun midfielder Sam Mitchell for eight weeks.

Scans on Monday confirmed Mitchell had suffered a serious hamstring injury in Saturday’s 145-point win over St Kilda.

Key defender Brian Lake tweaked his calf in the match and will be out of action for three to four weeks.

Mitchell does not require surgery, but the nature of the intra-muscular hamstring tendon injury means he’s unlikely to return until round 16 when the Hawks tackle North Melbourne on July 4.

The reigning premiers will sorely miss the two veterans on Friday night when they face Sydney at ANZ Stadium.

The Swans are also dealing with their own injury concerns, most notably ex-Hawthorn superstar Lance Franklin’s knee.

Sydney’s $10 million may not know until Wednesday whether he’ll be passed fit to play.

Franklin missed last weekend’s win over Brisbane with knee tendonitis and coach John Longmire said on Monday the problem was improving slowly.

“I’ll have a chat about it again tomorrow at our medical meeting but we may not know any more until Wednesday’s training about whether he plays,” said Longmire.

“We would be expecting him to be able to do some training on Wednesday.”

Longmire said Franklin was focusing on getting his knee right rather than thinking about playing against his old club for the first time.

Fellow forward Kurt Tippett was a strong chance to play his first senior game of the season on Friday after pulling up well from a hard session on Saturday.

However, in a blow to Sydney’s prospects against the premiers on Friday, first-choice ruckman Mike Pyke has been ruled out with a slight hamstring strain.

“It’s only minor. If it was a longer week he may have been a chance,” Longmire said.

With Pyke out, off-season recruit Tom Derickx is poised to shoulder the majority of the ruck burden against the Hawks.