GOLD Coast's injury merry-go-round continues, with Jaeger O'Meara to sit out another week, and coach Rodney Eade confirming David Swallow should see his first action of 2016 in the next fortnight.
There's a slight chance the star midfielders could play alongside each other in Gold Coast's NEAFL team in the coming weeks.
O'Meara has been ruled out this weekend due to soreness in his knee, two weeks after last playing a half of football for the Suns' reserves.
The setback makes it more unlikely the former Rising Star winner will play seniors this year, although he hasn't been completely ruled out.
"We're running out of games," Eade said on Thursday.
"Hopefully he can get back next week and that gives him a couple of weeks to play senior footy at the end, so that's what we're aiming for.
"The main thing is with his health and his knee to get that right and get him confident with that.
"In utopia, we'd like him to play, but we're not a chance to play finals, we don't have to win games - we want to win games - so there's no need to force him at this stage."
O'Meara has played two half games and three quarters of another this season after rupturing his patella tendon in his only practice match of 2015.
The news is promising for Swallow, who has not played a game since a pre-season arthroscopy on his knee.
"We're hopeful he might be able to play next week, if not the week after in the seconds," Eade said.
"That would just get him two or three games by the end of the year to get him a bit of confidence going into pre-season."
Eade said he expected skipper Gary Ablett to be running on day one of Gold Coast's pre-season, but said it could be the end of January before he was involved in full contact work after Wednesday's shoulder surgery.
Adam Saad (hamstring) and Trent McKenzie (quad) will make their way back through the NEAFL this weekend after missing the past month.