Gold Coast ruckman Tom Nicholls will miss Saturday's clash with the Crows due to a quad injury.

Nicholls, 23, was subbed out of the Sun's loss to GWS early in the opening quarter after several knocks re-aggravated a corked quad that has troubled him in recent weeks.

The athletic ruckman has played the last 12 games in a row – the longest streak of his injury-interrupted career. But that run is set to end with Nicholls to be sidelined for Saturday's game at Adelaide Oval.

“Tommy Nicholls got a cork in his right thigh early in the game. This is the same spot that he’d had corks on in the last couple of weeks,” Gold Coast Head Physiotherapist Adam Russell said on the Suns' website.

“We got him back out there, but unfortunately at the centre bounce he copped another knee straight onto it, so he was unable to continue."

Charlie Dixon looms as a likely replacement, but will need to shoulder more ruck responsibility in Nicholls' absence. Dixon will undergo a fitness test on Thursday to determine if he has overcome an ankle injury which kept the tall forward out of action last weekend.