Brownlow Medallist Matt Rowell has been ruled out of Gold Coast's clash with GWS on Sunday night.
The star midfielder is currently dealing with an ankle complaint, with the club hopeful he will feature in Round 9 against St Kilda.
It comes after Rowell missed the Suns' first three games due to a finger injury.
The Suns will also be weakened by the absence of Jarrod Witts, with the club opting to manage him after a tough assignment against Hawthorn duo Lloyd Meek and Ned Reeves.
But the Suns have the best ruck not getting a regular AFL game, Ned Moyle, to come in, with coach Damian Hardwick flagging the possibility of both playing in tandem in the future.
"Witta's been doing a power of work," Hardwick said.
"He went up against a couple of monsters on the weekend.
"Ned has been in terrific form at the lower level.
"We've got a young emerging talent that we're looking to give opportunities to and what we're going to work our way through I think moving forward is some of the sides with the two rucks, how are they going? Is it something we will look at moving forward as well?
"We want to be making sure we look at some things now without guessing later. We'll rest him this week, we'll reassess after the game and work our way through there."
Hardwick conceded the midfield had been below its best in the losses to Hawthorn, Sydney, Melbourne and narrow win over Essendon after started the season as a form team of the competition.
"One of the things we talk about, and one of the greatest things in world sport, is cohesion and chemistry," Hardwick said.
"We, like a lot of other clubs at the moment, probably haven't had all those players in the right parts of the ground at the right time.
"Whether they've been suspended or not playing or injured or coming back from injury, it's probably the one area of the ground we haven't had consistency of performance, but a little bit of that is related to personnel - and having to move bits and pieces in and out.”
