Adelaide star Izak Rankine hasn’t been at the club since revelations of his homophobic slur in last week’s win over Collingwood that resulted in a four-week ban that has polarised the AFL community.

Crows chief executive Tim Silvers confirmed that the 24-year-old, who would need a finals miracle, and at least one Adelaide loss, to return in the grand final, would be given extra time away from the club as he deals with the fallout.

Several commentators have lashed the AFL and league chief executive Andrew Dillon for backing away from a proposed five-match ban after hearing “compelling medical submissions” that included the impact on Rankine’s mental health.

Silvers said Rankine was “certainly doing it tough” and would be granted time away.

“He’s embarrassed, he’s remorseful, he’s regretful, he hasn’t actually been back to the club since it happened,” Silvers told Triple M Breakfast in Adelaide.

“I think he’s going to go through a little bit of a reset and maybe take off for a couple days. We will hope to get him back in the next week or so.”

Crows coach Matthew Nicks said the 25-year-old knew he had a tough period ahead.

“He’s got some support from the club there for him and he’s doing all right, disappointed but doing all right,” Nicks said after training at West Lakes.

“We’re locked into this weekend.

“We’ve put support around Izak because it’s a tough thing to go through and he knows it’s going to be tough from here, but we will work our way through it.”

Rankine’s punishment is the same as handed to West Coast’s Jack Graham, who self-reported a slur, but less than others handed out across the past two seasons at both AFL and VFL level.

Rankine said he was “committed to educating myself and being better” after being handed a four-week ban for the homophobic slur.

The ban was confirmed after a drawn-out process during which the Crows argued that finals games counted for more after the AFL proposed a five-game penalty.

It means the Crows would need to lose a home qualifying final, then win a semi-final and preliminary final for Rankine to be available for the grand final, with just one match remaining in the home-and-away season.

The penalty was confirmed on Thursday afternoon, nearly two days after the AFL proposed a five-match ban in line with other recent penalties.

But the Crows were given extra time to form a response and cited the impending grand final performance of US rapper Snoop Dogg, pitching it as hypocrisy given his history of homophobic remarks.

Rankine, who called his Magpie opponent a “f****t” didn’t leave his home for days after being interviewed by the AFL’s integrity department, with a full week of focus on his actions.

On Thursday afternoon, the league confirmed the ban and in a statement the AFL said Rankine “rang the Collingwood player to personally apologise and he fully co-operated with the subsequent investigation”, which impacted its decision.

The league also said the “compelling medical submissions” made by Rankine played a role in the size of the suspension being smaller than other offenders.