AAP reports this afternoon that Michael O'Loughlin now expects to miss just the first of the Swans AFL finals matches. O'Loughlin has been ruled out of Sunday's qualifying final away to Port Adelaide, and coach Paul Roos said that Matthew Nicks will come into the side for O'Loughlin.

The Daily Telegraph had more details, reporting that O'Loughlin suffered a grade one hamstring strain on Saturday.

"When we examined Mick straight away there was no hole and the muscle was in one piece so we know it's a grade one strain," Swans doctor, Nathan Gibbs said.

But after studying 50 MRIs on hamstring injuries over the past six years, Gibbs has never seen anyone make a miraculous recovery within a week.

"Put it this way, out of those 50 hamstring injuries we have documented on MRI with varying degrees of muscle involvement, not one of those recovered in seven days. It doesn't mean this won't be the first but if you were a betting man you'd say Michael O'Loughlin won't be playing."

Although the Swans are now resigned to the fact they won't have O'Loughlin for the Port Adelaide final, he is doing everything possible to ensure the quickest possible recovery. In the first 24 hours since the Swans' win on Saturday afternoon, O'Loughlin has had one hour of sleep. He has been on a constant routine of icing his right hamstring 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.

O'Loughlin is also on crutches to ensure he rests the damaged muscle totally to encourage recovery. He has also been elevating his injured leg as much as possible to speed up the resolution of the fluid in the muscle.

O'Loughlin has already defied the odds before this season. On the Friday at training before the Swans' Saturday night round 19 Hawthorn game at the SCG, O'Loughlin hurt his calf muscle. The MRI showed a grade one strain, but 24 hours later O'Loughlin was able to play against the Hawks.

Adam Goodes believes the Swans can physically cover O'Loughlin's anticipated absence, but it's going to be critical that the team gets over it mentally.

"We've got guys playing today in Canberra - Matthew Nicks, Mark Powell, Scott Stevens - guys who can come back into the team, there's no worries there," he said. "It's just a bit of a mental loss not having Mick there, if he doesn't play, but at the same time we need Mick to come out and put a big smile on his face during the week because we need that as well."

More information at -
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0...-23211,00.html