SWANS defender Jeremy Laidler has had surgery on his left elbow and is expected to miss at least the next month of training.

Laidler has his arm in a protective brace following his operation late last week, and Swans head of football Tom Harley told the club's website that the defender had been having issues with his elbow since late last year.

"He's had a grumbly elbow which presented in mid-December, and upon further investigation, there was some loose bodies and some arthritic aspects to the joint," he said.

"We'll see how he recovers fro the surgery but he'll certainly be out of action for up to six weeks.

"It's disappointing for 'Laids' as he was having a solid pre-season up until that point, but he's in good spirits."

In better news for last year's Grand Finalists, star midfielder Luke Parker continues to progress well from off-season knee surgery.

Last year's Brownlow medal runner-up injured his PCL in the Swans' preliminary final win over Geelong and although he managed to play in the Grand Final loss to the Western Bulldogs, he required an operation to fix the problem.

"He's (Parker's) back into fitness running at this stage and not too far away from joining introductory skills," Harley said.

"We're not going to take any risks with Luke, but it's surgery that was required at the end of last year.

"We know he's an absolute pro and he's certainly putting in the fitness yards at the moment to get the conditioning up to reintroduce himself to the group, which will be great because he's a very important player for us.

Star forward Lance Franklin and ruckman Sam Naismith are also making strides towards a full recovery after both had shoulder surgery over summer.

Both players should be fit to play some part at the back end of the JLT Community Series.

"Lance is ahead of Sam, as Sam had a plate inserted in his shoulder which required a secondary operation to remove the plate," Harley said.

"Lance is being reintroduced into skills. Clearly coming back from a shoulder he's in a non-contact phase but (he's) out there working with the main group, which is great.

"Sam is doing specific work with the ruck group, so both are tracking well."