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PORT Adelaide coach Matthew Primus denies Troy Chaplin's season is over, despite the defender requiring knee surgery.

Primus said Chaplin's training in 2012 had been severely restricted because of the complaint and it was simply a matter of time before he needed an operation to fix it.

He will miss Saturday's clash against Greater Western Sydney.

But Primus refused to rule Chaplin out for the remainder of the year, claiming he would play an important role in the short-term and, amid rumours the 26-year-old could join Richmond next season, in years to come.

"I think it might have been mentioned yesterday, he's been battling since the middle of the year just doing half our main training session and that's all he's doing a week," Primus said.

"We think Troy's still going to play a vital role for us, not only this year but in the coming years, but we'll see how goes ... it's definitely getting sorer every week.

"The closer the end of the season comes, the closer it'll come for having surgery for him."

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During the week it was reported Richmond had already offered Chaplin a four-year deal starting next season, which would mean that as a restricted free agent, the Power would need to match the deal or Chaplin could simply walk.

But Primus denied the claims earlier in the week, banking on Chaplin's honesty.

"We'll play that out, and this is what free agency is all about, but Troy's certainly not happy with the article in today's paper, he says it's the furthest thing from the truth," Primus said of a report that a deal with the Tigers was as good as done.

"All the discussions that we've ever had with Troy is that he hasn't spoken to anybody, his manager hasn't spoken to any other club, so we'll take Troy on that word and keep working with him."

Chaplin's future has been only a slight distraction from what looms a vital game for Port.

After being embarrassed by Fremantle in the first half last Sunday, Primus called on his players to have "a real strong win" against the Giants.

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Against the side that had been beaten by an average margin of more than 111 points over its last six games, Primus said a loss would be hard to swallow.

"We're solely focused on what we want to do and a brand of footy and, as I said during the week, we want to come out and have a real strong win," Primus said.

"It'd leave not a good taste in our mouth having another loss, but we're not even entertaining that thought.

"All we can do is prepare ourselves and worry about ourselves and make sure we play the kind of footy we want to play."

Harry Thring covers Port Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.