Two-time Sydney Swans club champion Paul Williams quietly called full-time on a glorious 306-game AFL career on Tuesday after revealing he needed season-ending shoulder surgery.

After finally getting his hands on a premiership medallion in his 294th AFL game in last year's grand final against West Coast, the former Collingwood player has been plagued by injury this season.

Williams last month announced this would be his final season and coach Paul Roos was planning to rest the 33-year-old from this week's gruelling flight to Perth to play the second-placed Eagles at Subiaco Oval on Saturday night.

But less than three hours after Roos told reporters at the SCG that Williams would be putting his feet up on Saturday night, the sixth-placed Swans released a statement saying Williams had succumbed to injury.

"It's obviously a disappointing way to finish but I've got no regrets having played for two great clubs and winning a grand final," Williams said.

"The past few weeks have been hard as the shoulder has just got weaker and weaker and the x-rays today showed there's no option but an operation, the pin needs to come out and it needs to be fixed."

Roos was quick to paint the former Magpie as one of the star midfielders of his time, saying the former North Hobart star had been an "outstanding servant" to the game.

"I really feel for him in that he won't have the chance to be seen off the way he should be as a player," Roos said.

"But, in saying that, we as a club will make sure he is given the send off he deserves as such a great player, and I'm sure all the fans would also love the opportunity to show Paul what he has meant to them."

Williams played 189 games for Collingwood from 1991 to 2000, finishing in the top three of the club's coveted Copeland Trophy four times.

Battling financial woes at the time he was traded to Sydney, Williams showed remarkable professionalism in his new home to be Sydney's club champion in his first two seasons there and picked up All-Australian honours in 2003.

"It was quite astonishing. No-one knew exactly what he was going through, of course," Roos told AAP.

"It was public knowledge that he was having trouble.

"To play the best footy of his career under pretty difficult circumstances just showed the quality of the player and the person.

"It was just a phenomenal effort to do what he did."

Roos said when Williams was winning best-and-fairest awards with the Swans and an All-Australian jumper he was clearly one of the league's stars.

"At Collingwood he was played more as a small forward but with us he was played as a midfielder and there was definitely a period there when he was right up with the best midfielders going around," said Roos, who took over as senior coach midway through the 2002 season.

The sudden end to a stellar career came as a shock, with media at first told he was being simply rested for a week.

An operation to repair a broken collarbone last year hadn't completely healed.

"It was pinned when Paul first broke it and the pin actually broke and, as a consequence, the clavicle has refractured," Swans doctor Nathan Gibbs said today.

"To his credit Paul has continued to play but it has now reached the stage where there is no improvement and surgery is required."

Roos said he was aware before Sunday's clash with Adelaide at the SCG that it may have been the last game for Williams.

"We wanted to give him one more opportunity at least ... it probably came up late last week, his scan, and finding the severity of the injury," Roos said.

"It came as a bit of a shock to the match committee. He'd obviously played with it for a couple of weeks prior and it had been sore so we thought let's see how he goes on the weekend ... and then let's talk to the doctors this week."

Williams met with team doctors on Monday and Roos had a medical meeting on Tuesday morning and then discussed things with Williams later.

Roos said he knew at the 4pm press conference that Williams was set to retire.

"But I hadn't had a chance to speak to Willo and we hadn't had a chance to formally announce it to the players," Roos said.

The club is planning to give Williams an on-field farewell later this season.

"We'll work with him on that and just see what he's comfortable with," Roos said.

Anxious to foster development within the club, Williams has mentored midfielders including Jarrad McVeigh and Luke Ablett.

"He's been a great clubman as well as a great player," Roos said.

"He's going to be very sorely missed when he leaves to go to Melbourne. His family has made a lot of younger players feel very welcome at his house and at the club."

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