KURT Tippett seems a certain starter but doubts still surround Lance Franklin's availability for the Sydney Swans' blockbuster against Hawthorn on Friday night.

Ever since the draw came out, the match has been pencilled in as a must-see event, with Franklin due to face his former teammates for the first time.

But the knee tendonitis that ruled him out of Saturday's victory over the Brisbane Lions has him still in doubt and Franklin needs to take part in Wednesday's training session to be any chance of playing.

"He's been improving each day, we'll have a chat about it again tomorrow at our medical meeting but we may not know any more until Wednesday's training whether he plays or not," Swans coach John Longmire told reporters on Monday.

"It's still a few days to go yet and we're a bit uncertain whether he'll be OK or not.

"It's been improving, whether he improves enough by Wednesday, we'll have that discussion.

"We'd expect him to do some training if he was going to play, so he'd have to do some training on Wednesday."



