SWANS star forward Barry Hall is likely to return to action this weekend in Sydney’s NAB challenge match against Port Adelaide at ANZ stadium.

Sydney coach Paul Roos says the former captain is training well after recovering from groin surgery over summer.

“I think he’ll probably play,” Roos said.

“If he pulls up a little bit sore tomorrow (after training), he probably won’t play… but he trained really well on Tuesday and looked a million dollars… there’s a possibility he’ll come on Saturday night and warm up and if he doesn’t feel quite right he won’t play but at this stage it looks like he’ll probably suit up which will be good.”

Hall won’t be the only big name returning to action this weekend with new co-captain Craig Bolton, Brett Kirk, Adam Goodes, Darren Jolly, and Michael O’Loughlin also appearing on the team sheet.

“I don’t think he (O’Loughlin) would have played a game this early since 1912,” Roos laughed.

“We want to play our best team in the first half… the second half will be a lot of kids but the first half will be about a system and getting the guys used to playing with each other again.”

While Roos says talented defender Tadhg Kennelly’s recovery from knee surgery is on track and while he won’t feature this weekend he should be back soon.

“His knee’s actually really good but he’s just got a bit of groin soreness that he had last Friday that we’ve just got to manage. He might be next week but more likely the game after,” Roos said.

One player not out on the track is defender Nick Malceski who ruptured his ACL in last week’s NAB Cup game against Hawthorn. But Roos is trying to be positive about his available personnel.

“We thought that with Marty (Mattner), Tadhg and Mal it (the backline) would have been pretty potent but I suppose you’ve got to look at the glass half full. We didn’t really have Tadhg much last year and we obviously didn’t have Marty so hopefully we’ll get the two of them… and we’ll be better than what we were.”

Like Kennelly and Hall, who spent time in the coaches’ box last year when they were injured, Malceski may also get to view the coaches close up during game time.

“They’re always welcome to come in. We’re generally pretty open as a coaching group,” Roos said.

“Sometimes you say things you shouldn’t and the players will tend to laugh a bit. I’m sure they go and tell that player behind their back and we don’t know about it,” Roos laughs.