EXILED Sydney full-forward Barry Hall may return to the side as soon as this week following injuries to key players in the spirited win over Carlton yesterday.

Forward Michael O'Loughlin injured an ankle and full-back Leo Barry strained a hamstring, leaving the Swans with only two fit players on the bench in the second half of the game.

Sydney players labelled yesterday's match as a "must win" game for the club and coach Paul Roos described it as significant because it it arrested a slump of two losses, but also came in Tadhg Kennelly's 150th game.

"They are special, you get four points for all of them but some wins are better because we were down and out. We had a number of players on the bench that couldn't come back on and we were playing against a team that were in really good form. So to come back and win that game I thought was a terrific effort from our guys," Roos said.

"Hopefully for us it is a significant step after some average weeks to get back and play good footy."

Roos said it was still early to make a judgement on Hall's return but it was a possibility he could come back for the Adelaide game at the SCG on Saturday night.

"He will return when he is cleared to play (by) both (psychologist) Grant (Brecht) and myself, and hopefully that is not too far away. Possibly (this week), but I don't know. I haven't really put a time frame on it."

The injuries to O'Loughlin and Barry revived Richmond coach Terry Wallace's suggestion earlier this season that the interchange bench should be expanded.

Roos said the fans of the side carrying injuries would have a firm view on the idea and, although he did not hold a strong opinion, he believed there should be debate of the issue.

The Swans won the match after trailing Carlton by 29 points in the second quarter — despite the injuries. Ryan O'Keefe also hurt an ankle but managed to come back on and dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes finished with just seven touches after being soundly beaten by Bryce Gibbs.

"(Goodes) wasn't 100% so we weren't able to use him in the roles," Roos said.

"To his credit it was significant he was able to go forward, particularly with those guys on the bench. He couldn't really run, he couldn't really move the way he would like to so we were able to put him deep and he kicked a couple of critical goals for us."

Roos said the Swans also needed to address the number of free kicks they were giving away that resulted in goals.

"I think they had five free-kick goals in the first half so that makes it really really hard. It is an issue … and that is something we need to address," he said.

The Swans shut down Chris Judd and Nick Stevens holding them to only 14 and 11 possessions respectively — Judd had just four in the second half — with Brett Kirk and Luke Ablett winning their contests.

On Kennelly's 150th game, Roos said: "For what he represents to us as a footy club, the sacrifices he has made to come across here, that was spoken about before the game."

■Nick Davis, who is out for the rest of the year with injury after being out of the side on form, has certainly played his last game for the Swans.

In a pre-match interview on Triple M, Roos was disparaging of Davis, saying he had failed to attend training and rehab on Friday after telling The Age he would love to play at West Coast next year.

■Brendan Fevola's contract talks with Carlton are set to be suspended until the end of the AFL season.

Blues chief executive Greg Swann yesterday said the club's board would tonight probably decide to delay talks with the full-forward until after Carlton's final game to prevent the key parties getting further sidetracked.

"It has dragged on for too long and everyone's getting sidetracked, so I'd say that would be the most likely outcome that we'll fix it at the end of the year," Swann told Fairfax Radio.

But Swann emphatically ruled out the Blues recruiting Nick Davis, who has been shopping himself around to other AFL clubs.

Swann was chief executive at Collingwood when Davis left the Magpies for Sydney, and said although the forward's manager had approached Carlton, he would not be at Princes Park in 2009.

"Not in a million years, no," he said.

With AAP