John Longmire is adamant Lance Franklin will continue to help, not hinder, the development of Sydney's young forwards whenever he returns for the AFL club.
Franklin, having tweaked his hamstring before the April 27 Sydney derby, will miss a fourth-straight game if he is unable to prove his fitness on Thursday at training.
The Swans, who had been initially upbeat that Franklin might be sidelined for only one match, are yet to rule out the prospect of him facing North Melbourne on Saturday night in Hobart.
However, Sydney coach Longmire made it clear on Monday that "if he's not quite right to go, he won't be ready and we won't play him".
That was the case last week, when Franklin pulled up tight after attempting to prove to club medicos he was ready to tackle Essendon.
Franklin's absence on the park has been glaring over the past month, although Nick Blakey and Tom McCartin recently helped the Swans to kick a winning score of 11.11 (77) against the Bombers.
The 32-year-old, who had been an excitable figure in the coaches' box last Friday as the Swans held on to win an after-the-siren thriller, has been mentoring Blakey, McCartin and other young teammates in recent weeks.
Longmire is confident that process will continue on the field, dismissing the notion that Franklin's return might curb the development of his team's young forwards.
"Lance takes a very good defender. He certainly helped Tommy's development last year," Longmire said.
"We've been able to do that pretty well ... we're mindful of that.
"We've always liked to get him up the ground anyway ... and allow others to go to work inside 50 for a few different reasons.
"So we'll see how much training he's done, when he gets back into the team and see where we can play him."
Longmire, who suggested it was too early to make a call on Franklin's hopes of facing North, was full of praise for the four-time Coleman medallist's recent work behind the scenes.
"He's been terrific. He loves the fact he's mentoring some of those younger forwards - as (injured veterans) Heath Grundy, Jarrad McVeigh and Nick Smith have been doing with our young defenders," he said.
"They've had real hands-on roles in meetings and during games. They've all been fantastic."
