Sydney chief Andrew Ireland cannot guarantee Adam Goodes will continue his decorated career in the wake of the booing controversy.

Goodes will not play against Adelaide this week and it is unknown when, or if, he will return to the club.

"Hopefully with a few more days off he'll be better and want to come back and get back into his footy," Ireland said on Thursday morning.

"We're not certain of that, my current view is he will come back and play in the remainder of this season but to be frank I couldn't be certain about it.

"No one at the club in the discussions we've had with him have talked about retirement. It's just simply been needing a bit of time away from footy and that's a view the club supports."

Ireland is not expecting Goodes to attend Saturday's match at the SCG.