Sydney Swans coach John Longmire has outlined the difficulties the club is facing after several players and staff were forced into 14 days of isolation.
Less than an hour before last Sunday’s win over GWS, three players (Callum Mills, Harry Cunningham and Colin O’Riordan) and multiple support staff were told that their seats at AAMI Park for a rugby international last week were in a section that became a Tier 1 COVID exposure site.
Caught up in the COVID chaos was the entirely of Sydney’s high performance team, who won’t be able to prepare the team ahead of their game against Fremantle in Round 19.
Longmire said it was imperative the staff who aren’t in isolation were able to ensure players weren’t impacted by the added challenges this week, saying they have to do the “right thing” in all forms of injury prevention.
“We’ve lost the entire high performance and we don’t have anyone,” he said on SEN’s Whateley.
“We have our physios and coaches and away we go, I’ll get out there with my year 10 high school sports degree and go hard at it.
“Our physios have been fantastic, it’s like everyone at the moment. The staff have been cut by a third anyway and the travelling staff has been cut more, we have 43 players to service so everyone in the football departments are doing multiple roles seven days a week.
“Each day, we need to make sure we’re doing the right thing by our players to make sure they’re not getting themselves injured.
“Injury prevention is a big part of it, it’s not just about getting players fitter, It’s also about injury prevention and that’s something we’re working through.”