After almost 15 weeks and a number of setbacks, defender Rhyce Shaw is finally eyeing his return to the Sydney Swans’ senior side.

The 31-year-old, who will play his first game since round two this weekend when he travels to the Gold Coast with the Swans reserves, said he is targeting the club’s round 18 clash with Richmond at the SCG as a hopeful return date.

“It’s been a long time and I’m really looking forward to getting out there and playing a bit of game time this week against the Gold Coast with our twos and hopefully I can get through the game unscathed,” Shaw told SwansTV.

“I’ve backed myself in with my fitness and I’ll get a good game this week and hopefully get a full game or something near that and I can go from there.

“I’m looking as close as possible, so I’m eyeing off Richmond but we’ll see what happens.”

It’s been a long and frustrating season for the defender, who suffered an abdominal tear in the first ten minutes of the Swans’ round two clash with the Suns at the SCG.

Shaw was given a 1-2 week diagnosis for his initial injury, but a number of setbacks including a complication with his pelvis saw the defender sidelined for more than three months.

“It took a while to get over that and I thought it would be a couple of weeks, but obviously there was other stuff going on with my pelvis, which stopped me from coming back,” Shaw said about his injury.

“It’s been a long process and it’s been something like (15) weeks now so I’m just happy to be out there training.

“I’ve been training for a couple of weeks now and I’m feeling really good and all is going well so far.”

Shaw’s fitness was put to the test last week at the SCG when he took on the role as a runner for the Swans reserves, which the defender said was the perfect preparation for his return to football this weekend.

“I don’t know if green was my colour but it was good to get out there and have a good blowout as a runner and send some messages out to the boys and get around them,” he said.

“I was just happy to get a run and now I can go another step and play in the twos this week and hopefully I’m not too far away from seniors.”

The Swans reserves will have some unlikely fans at Saturday afternoon’s curtain raiser ahead of the Gold Coast Suns’ clash with Collingwood at Metricon Stadium, with Shaw predicating that a number of old team mates, including younger brother Heath, might be in the stands.

“It’s just worked out perfectly for my little brother,” Shaw said.

“He’s going to be watching his older brother washed up in the twos coming back.

“It will be a lot of fun and hopefully a couple of boys come out and support me, which I don’t think will happen but we’ll see how we go!”