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Port Adelaide star Robbie Gray is set to extend his AFL career into a 16th season despite an untimely knee injury that will keep him on the sidelines until the final round of this year.

Gray's 250th match ended prematurely on Saturday when he was substituted at halftime of Port's win over Gold Coast.

Follow-up scans revealed the torn medial ligament in his left knee required surgery.

The Power expect Gray, one of their most important players and a three-time best and fairest, to be on the sidelines for eight weeks.

There are nine rounds remaining in 2021, meaning any setback in the 33-year-old's recovery could put him at risk of missing the start of finals.

Gray is out of contract at season's end.

Port football manager Chris Davies says he has "no doubt" the forward will be at the club in 2022, regardless of whether he hits a contract clause related to playing a certain number of games in 2021.

"Robbie's start of the year has been sufficiently good to suggest he should be around for next year," Davies told reporters in Adelaide.

"In fairness to both Robbie and the club, there was never any doubt that whatever happens ... would be a mutual decision."

Port, who sit fifth on the ladder, host sixth-placed Sydney in Saturday's crunch clash at Adelaide Oval.

The timing of the game could yet be tweaked as the league plots a path around a growing COVID-19 cluster in Sydney.

Defender Lachie Jones is set to be out of action for a month, having suffered a hamstring injury during the Power's victory over the Suns.

Gray and Jones join fellow key players Zak Butters, Xavier Duursma and Orazio Fantasia on a long injury list.

"It's going to be a challenge for us, no doubt," Davies said, confirming Butters, Duursma and Fantasia would likely spend at least another week on the sidelines.

"The cupboard is becoming increasingly bare but, at the same time, there's some guys who have played some good AFL footy and will get a chance now."

Davies admitted Gray was "disappointed, as you can imagine".

"It wasn't a great end to his 250th game. His challenge now will be to get right before the finals," he said.

© AAP 2021

Why did a loved and respected schoolteacher upend her life, secretly change her name, slip back into Australia and quietly vanish?

The question that has stumped Marion Barter's family and friends for decades is now before NSW State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan, who on Monday opened an inquest into the former NSW and Queensland teacher's disappearance.

Ms Barter has not been seen since leaving Australia for an indefinite trip to England on June 22, 1997.

But her relatives and police now know she'd already changed her name by deed poll to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel and would soon slip back into Australia.

The coroner was told Sally Leydon reported her mother missing in Byron Bay October 1997, noting her suspicion Ms Barter was back in the country.

But police did little for 10 years, having marked Ms Leydon's report "occurrence only" and "no further action required" in the first 36 hours.

Detective Senior Constable Gary Sheehan picked up the case in 2009 and said the police narrative was "very, very scant in detail" and the file lacked a picture of Ms Barter or a detailed statement from Ms Leydon.

The "occurrence only" marking was "inappropriate" in light of the available information, he said.

Before going to police in 1997, Ms Leydon was told by a Commonwealth Bank employee a series of $5000 withdrawals had been made from her mother's account.

But the transactions records no longer exist, the inquest was told.

Limited documentary evidence includes proof her Medicare card was used at a Grafton optometrist on August 13, six days after her RACQ membership and policy was cancelled over the phone or at a branch.

Det Sen Const Sheehan defended suspending the case in 2011, causing Ms Barter to be marked "located" despite no sighting or proof of life.

He decided Ms Barter went "to great lengths" to estrange herself from her family and start a new life, including calling and writing to family from England in June and July 1997, he said.

"She was keeping up a front on one hand but also covertly arranging herself a new life," he told the inquest.

"It's not the job of the police to find out why, it's the job to find out what happened."

He denied it was inappropriate to mark an unsighted person "located", saying there were no fears for the teacher's safety.

Ms Barter, who would now be aged 75, married three times, including first to Australian soccer legend Johnny Warren.

From the 1960s, she taught at various locations including the Blue Mountains and the NSW South Coast before taking a job in 1994 at prestigious The Southport School on the Gold Coast.

But Ms Barter quit midyear in 1997, sold her house at a loss, packed her belongings in an unknown storage unit and - without her family's knowledge - changed her name to the "highly unusual" Florabella Remakel, counsel assisting Adam Casselden SC said.

"It is likely that the reasons behind her change of name are intrinsically connected with the mysterious circumstances of her disappearance and the question of whether she is alive or deceased," he said in his opening address.

Just before leaving Australia, Ms Barter was spotted late one night in May 1997 at a petrol station. The man seen in the passenger seat of her car has never been identified.

Mr Casselden said the investigation was "very much ... ongoing".

"If any member of the public has any information ... I strongly encourage you to come forward," he said.

The inquest is due to run two weeks, including hearings next week in Ballina and Byron Bay.

© AAP 2021

COVID-19 restrictions in Sydney will likely be extended as an outbreak in the city reaches a "critical phase".

Two new locally transmitted cases have been recorded in NSW, taking Sydney's eastern suburbs COVID cluster to 11.

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant says it's an "optimistic sign" the pair are both close contacts of previously reported cases and tested positive while in isolation.

The woman in her 50s from Sydney's north and the man in his 30s from the eastern suburbs were both diagnosed after the 8pm cut off and will be included in Tuesday's numbers.

Another two cases, announced on Sunday morning, were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday and have been included in Monday's figures.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says authorities are very concerned by the extremely contagious nature of this Delta strain.

"In some instances, the exchanges have been scaringly fleeting," she told reporters on Monday.

"People not even physically touching each other but literally fleetingly coming into the same airspace has seen the virus transferred from one person to another."

Dr Chant says the new infections are a positive sign contact tracing and isolation is working, but says NSW isn't out of the woods.

"From one person alone we've had four or five cases ... even if they infect one or two each, you can see how it grows exponentially."

"That's why this is such a critical phase.

"We need to find all the cases, and make sure we identify the close contacts and casual contacts."

NSW Health said in a statement that people in the eastern suburbs who don't have symptoms and have not been at exposure venues at the listed times don't need to isolate.

However they are encouraged to avoid gatherings, minimise their movements, and work from home if possible.

The growing cluster has also prompted the government to mandate mask-wearing in seven local council areas.

Anyone shopping, working in hospitality or indoors must wear a mask unless eating or drinking if they live in the local government areas of Randwick, Bayside, Botany Bay, Inner West, City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra.

Masks are also compulsory on public transport in Greater Sydney, Wollongong and Shellharbour local government areas until Thursday.

Greater Sydney and Blue Mountains residents have been told to avoid non-essential visits to aged care and disability facilities and if visiting must wear a mask with a limit of two visitors a day.

Ms Berejiklian said restrictions would likely be extended and called for more people to get tested.

She also appealed for more Pfizer vaccine doses at a national cabinet meeting on Monday.

"The current outbreak we're experiencing demonstrates the risk is always there, the threats are always there, no matter how good your systems are," Ms Berejiklian told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday morning.

"Other states have received a top-up, and I just want to make sure we get our fair share, especially given the vast majority of Aussies coming back home are coming through Sydney Airport."

She later told reporters she had been assured the doses would be distributed to states according to their population.

The latest outbreak was sparked last week when an unvaccinated limousine driver, who transported overseas aircrew to and from the airport, tested positive after visiting multiple venues, including the popular Bondi Junction shopping centre.

Hundreds of people are isolating after scores of close contact exposure sites were identified across more than a dozen suburbs.

© AAP 2021