Errol Gulden is set to be back in the frame for Sydney after the bye, giving the club a timely lift as it prepares for a testing stretch of the season. Dean Cox said the midfielder will, at this stage, look to play post-bye, a significant step for a player who has not featured since round two in mid-March after shoulder reconstruction.
The timing matters because Sydney does not have long to wait. Its bye comes next weekend, and the club is already looking at the period immediately after it as a chance to regain senior players who have spent weeks on the sideline. Gulden's recovery has now stretched from round two in mid-March through the bye, a run of more than three months without a game, and his return would come just as Sydney tries to keep its place near the top of the ladder.
Cox also flagged Tom McCartin as another player moving in the right direction, saying he is progressing really well after concussion. That leaves Sydney with two of its more important names edging toward selection while Tom Papley, Dane Rampe and Braeden Campbell remain in the broader return mix in the weeks to come. Papley and Rampe have both been out with calf injuries, while Campbell has been sidelined by shin stress fractures.
The upbeat injury update arrived after Sydney beat Port Adelaide by three points on Saturday night, 14.9 to 13.12, away from home. The win lifted Sydney to second on the ladder, trailing Fremantle on percentage, and sharpened the value of every available body. There is little margin for error when a team is trying to protect its position and prepare for the grind that follows a bye.
That is where the friction sits in Sydney's week. The club has five mainstays close to coming back, but the next phase will ask more of them than an injury bulletin can promise. Gulden's return after the bye looks the likeliest of the lot, McCartin is moving well, and the rest will be worked through after that. For Sydney, the question is no longer whether help is coming. It is how quickly it can get enough of it back on the park to handle what comes next.
