THE LINGERING heel injury for Touk Miller will keep the Gold Coast vice-captain out for at least another week.

Miller took part in the first 30 minutes of the Suns' main training session on Thursday, but will miss his third straight match on Saturday against Greater Western Sydney.

"We're still early in the season and we're committed to giving him time off to make sure we can get him as good as we possibly can," coach Stuart Dew said.

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"We don't want to go early on it and send him back a couple of weeks.

"We'll be patient with him because there's a lot of footy to be played."

Miller played with the niggle for a couple of weeks but succumbed to it following the one-point loss to Melbourne in round eight.

He was initially put in a moon boot but did his largest volume of training at Metricon Stadium on Thursday, joining in for some small running drills before leaving training early.

Another sidelined Sun is Pearce Hanley, who watched training from the boundary line, still overcoming an operation to relieve the pressure caused by bleeding from a corked quad.

Dew said the running defender would likely return after Gold Coast's bye in round 14.

The Suns head south to the Giants Stadium graveyard on Saturday that has resulted in three losses in excess of 90 points the past three seasons.



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"We'll go in with the same attitude as we did against Geelong," Dew said.

"They're really dangerous if you let them be. I think teams are only as fast as you let them play.

"We think we can move the ball a bit quicker as well and take our opportunities."

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