\n Updated\n <\/p>\n
\n Sydney will be without Chloe Molloy for the rest of the 2025 campaign\n <\/p>\n
Chloe Molloy in action during Sydney’s clash with Collingwood in round five, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
SYDNEY is unsure how long co-captain Chloe Molloy will be sidelined after the latest injury setback for the star Swan.<\/p>\n
Molloy will need back surgery, ending her season, in a major blow for the Swans.<\/p>\n
Sydney’s season is on the brink heading into the final round. They are ninth and will play 15th-placed Essendon on Saturday in Coffs Harbour.<\/p>\n
Coach Scott Gowans is hopeful of recalling Sofia Hurley from injury, adding Cynthia Hamilton’s nasty-looking knee and ankle injuries suffered last weekend were not as bad as first feared.<\/p>\n
But after needing back surgery in 2023 and having most of last year’s season ruined by a knee reconstruction, Molloy is out of action again.<\/p>\n
“We really won’t know any more … until the surgery’s done,” Gowans said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“It’s similar to last time (the previous back surgery), but we just don’t know the details.<\/p>\n
“It’s very disappointing. She’s clearly one of our better players. We just have to get on with it.”<\/p>\n
The Swans revealed the huge setback in an injury update after Molloy had missed the past two games with back soreness.<\/p>\n
One of the AFLW’s best players, she had bounced back well this season after returning from her knee reconstruction.<\/p>\n
Molloy, 26, is a three-time All-Australian. She is equal fourth in the AFLW’s goalkicking this season with 19 in nine games, four behind leader Indy Tahau from Port Adelaide.<\/p>\n
Gowans added Hamilton was still being assessed after she was injured early in Saturday’s win over West Coast.<\/p>\n
“It’s not as bad as first thought – it did look really nasty. It could have been a lot worse,” Gowans said.<\/p>\n
The Swans are ninth, outside the top eight on percentage, going into Saturday’s clash against 15th-placed Essendon.<\/p>\n
Sydney are on 24 points, along with seventh-placed West Coast, eighth side Adelaide and Fremantle, who are 10th.<\/p>\n
Scott Gowans during Sydney’s 2025 team photo day at Sydney Swans HQ on July 15, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
The Swans will start strong favourites against the Bombers, but they will also need other results to go their way to be guaranteed of a second finals appearance.<\/p>\n
After winning their first four games this season, Sydney has dropped five of their past seven.<\/p>\n
“I had a go at it myself and made myself ill,” Gowans said of assessing the top-eight permutations.<\/p>\n
“We’re just clearly focused on us. We’ve got a little bit of a history of dropping games like this.<\/p>\n
“This week is solely on us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Sydney will be without Chloe Molloy for the rest of the 2025 campaign Chloe Molloy in action…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-247240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}