Adelaide's premier onballer Rory Sloane will soon leave hospital after appendix surgery but won't know his AFL finals fate for another week.
Adelaide coach Don Pyke expects Sloane to recover from Tuesday's appendix surgery in time for next Thursday night's qualifying final against Greater Western Sydney.
"He is not considering not playing," Pyke told reporters on Wednesday.
But the Crows coach says Sloane's status won't be fully known until next week.
"I spoke with him this morning and he's in good spirits and we will see how things settle down," Pyke said.
"Expectation at the moment is he should be fine.
"To be honest it's probably too early say with certainty.
"But the advice that I have got, and it's only early days because he only had surgery yesterday, is we will see how he recovers and we will be guided by the medicos and Rory.
"Obviously he has got to be comfortable out of the surgery.
'And the advice has to be that he's not going to be any risk by playing or preparing to play, because he will need to do some things to get ready for next Thursday night.
"We will assess all that, it's too early to tell now though."
Crows forward Eddie Betts also had his appendix removed last month and missed a match.
"It's probably unusual, isn't it, you get two guys in one season having their appendix out, but that is life," Pyke said.
"These are the things you can expect through a campaign. We will just deal with it and get ready for next Thursday night."
Adelaide captain Taylor Walker said news of Sloane's surgery was well-handled by the playing group.
"The beauty of our group is we just expect the unexpected and when it arises, we just jump the hurdle and keep going," Walker told reporters on Wednesday.
"I don't think too many clubs would have two in a year but it is what it is."
