Re-signed Sydney player Harry Cunningham to go in for season-ending surgery

An injury-plagued AFL season has come to an early end for the Turvey Park junior, who has decided to go under the knife early in a bid to be ready to resume at the start of pre-season training.

Cunningham missed about 10 weeks with an adductor injury mid-season and only returned for two games before the groin injury struck.

The decision comes just as the Swans announced the re-signing of Cunningham on a three-year deal that ties him to the club until 2022.

The 25-year-old said it made sense to bite the bullet and get the surgery done.

"I'm going in for groin surgery early next week," Cunningham said.

"The decision was made, the best process going forward is to get the surgery and to fix everything up. I've had a few issues for the last couple of years and things flared up again this year.

"It's probably why I've been injured most of the year. The best course now that we can't make finals is to get the surgery done and have a big pre-season.

"If I get it done now, I won't miss any of the off-season or pre-season running. If I did wait until the end of the season, I would miss a fair chunk of it. So the decision was made that it needed to be done then get myself right for a big year next year."

Cunningham will undergo the same surgery that fellow Swans players Lance 'Buddy' Franklin and Daniel Menzel underwent last off-season.

He faces 10-12 weeks recovery time and will hit pre-season running, looking to build on his 113-game AFL career.

Cunningham is happy to lock himself into the Swans for another three seasons.

"It's pretty exciting," he said.

"Exciting times ahead for the footy club with the direction and the age of the young boys at the moment so I'm absolutely stoked to be hanging around for another couple of years, at least, and to help these younger blokes through.

"I wanted to stay in Sydney, I love the footy club, this is my eighth year here now. I feel like I wanted to replay the faith. I got picked up as a rookie eight years ago and have played a bit of footy now.

"I want to stick around, help the club and this young group get back to finals footy as quick as possible. I didn't see myself in any other colours than red and white."

There were a number of rival AFL clubs circling Cunningham and making enquires about his future but he was never tempted by the offers.

"I don't know about temptations but you have got to look at all of the options and see what's in front of you," he said.

"At the end of the day, I see myself as a Swans player so it came to that and we finally got something done. I was pretty happy with the outcome and the way it all panned out."

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