SYDNEY has suffered a monster double injury blow – losing star forward Isaac Heeney for the rest of 2020 and co-captain Josh Kennedy for at least six weeks.

Scans on Monday confirmed Heeney had suffered a dislocation and ruptured medial ligament in his right ankle in Sunday's loss to Richmond and will require surgery.

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Kennedy has avoided surgery but will be reduced to a brace for several weeks after rupturing the medial ligament in his left knee. 

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The pair of setbacks adds to an already heavy injury list that includes Sam Naismith (knee), Lance Franklin (knee), Sam Reid (calf), Callum Sinclair (knee) and Tom McCartin (concussion). 

Coach John Longmire was hopeful Sinclair could return this week to tackle Gold Coast, while a call was yet to be made on McCartin who has missed three consecutive matches. 

Reid will miss again due to a lack of training. 

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"At the moment we've got eight or nine over 194cm on our injury list," Longmire said. 

"If it's not this week (players return), we'll continue to work at ways we can score better and we'll continue to try and improve that." 

The Swans made a curious call to drop Aliir Aliir (196cm) – their only key back over 190cm – ahead of the Tigers' clash. 

Longmire said it was purely due to a lack of form. 

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"He hasn't played that well over the last few weeks," Longmire said. 

"He's really our only key position player out of the team that hasn't been injured. 

"We just had to try and get him back into a bit of form. We've been working through that over the last three or four weeks and we hadn't been making the steps that we or he wanted to."