Sydney Swans experienced defender Jarrad McVeigh and speedster Harry Cunningham are both close to returning from injury and are hoping to be available for selection for Saturday afternoon’s clash with Gold Coast.

McVeigh hasn’t played since straining his hamstring in Sydney’s win over West Coast in Round 12, while Cunningham has been sidelined since tearing his adductor in the Brisbane match in Round 7.

Sydney Head of Football Charlie Gardiner said the duo are progressing well.

“Jarrad is keen to get back as quickly as possible,” Gardiner said.

“He’s back in full training already. It’s only been 19 or 20 days since he injured his hamstring against West Coast, so his recovery has been really good. We’ll just have to see how he gets through training this week.

“Harry had been tracking really well up until two weeks ago around the bye. He put in a solid training load but pulled up a little bit sore. We eased him off, he’s feeling much better, he’s been reintroduced to training this week and if he’s not available for selection this week I expect he will be next week.”

Meanwhile, star Sydney forward Lance Franklin is set for a stint on the sidelines after injuring his hamstring in last Friday’s win over Hawthorn.

“Lance had scans on the weekend on his hamstring which confirmed that he’s injured the same hamstring that he injured in the lead-up to Round 6,” Gardiner said.

“The advice at this stage is that he’ll miss three to four weeks, but we’ll see how he recovers.” 

In other news Swans ruckman Callum Sinclair has trained this week and is expected to be right to play after recovering from the head knock he suffered against the Hawks.