Callum Mills has made a heartfelt apology after suffering a serious shoulder injury

Sydney co-captain Callum Mills doesn’t know when he’ll be back playing and has apologised after injuring his shoulder wrestling a teammate.

Sydney Swans captain Callum Mills is set to miss the start of 2024. Photo by Phil Hillyard

Sydney co-captain Callum Mills is unsure when he’ll be back playing or if he’ll lose the captaincy declaring he’s “gutted” as he apologised to the club and its supporters for injuring his shoulder during Mad Monday celebrations.

Mills is unsure of the exact time frame for his recovery but conceded his start to the 2024 season was “at risk” as he told Swans fans he was doing all he could to be fit again as quickly as possible.

Fronting the cameras on Wednesday with his left arm in a sling, the 26-year-old did not divulge details of the incident but confirmed he had damaged his rotator cuff in the incident, which required surgery last week.

He had not discussed the status of his captaincy with the Swans, but said he did not take the position for granted and loved holding a leadership role.

Mills took over one-third of the Sydney captaincy from veteran Josh Kennedy at the start of the 2022 season, but his shoulder injury is the second major off-field setback of his career and will prompt scrutiny over his role from the club.

Callum Mills apologised to the Swans and supporters when he faced the media on Wednesday. Picture: Fox Sports

He broke his foot after tripping in a gutter while throwing a gridiron ball with teammates on a Sydney street in 2018, which ruled him out of the final 13 games of the season.

“I’m gutted that this will potentially put the start of my season at risk, but one thing I do want to assure people is I’m doing everything I possibly can to get back as quick as possible,” Mills said.

“And for Swans fans, I want to make it really clear that this will not deter my, nor my teammates, commitment to chasing success in 2024.”

Mills said the details of the Mad Monday incident “weren’t necessarily important”, but he took “full responsibility” for the outcome.

“What is important is I’m here today and take ownership for my actions, and put my hand up and own it,” he said.

For the last two seasons Mills has shared the captaincy with experienced teammates Dane Rampe and Luke Parker. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“Without taking away the seriousness of the injury, it occurred on that day (Mad Monday) and as I said, I made a bad mistake.

“There’s a window that we’ve been given (for recovery), the likelihood is it may impact the start of the season but there’s still a lot of water to go under the bridge, and we’ll go on surgeon and specialist advice.”

Mills said he had an “extremely hard” conversation with coach John Longmire after discovering the extent of the injury days after the incident.

“As soon as I found the results, I went into Horse’s office and told him exactly what happened, and as you can imagine, he was extremely disappointed, as am I in myself,” Mills said.

“It was extremely hard, but that’s the respect I have for Horse, to be able to own it and take full responsibility.

“It was quite an innocuous accident – the next couple of days, I didn’t know what I’d done, how bad it was … it was a bad mistake, and it’s extremely frustrating and I’m gutted that this is the result.”