The salaries of hundreds of AFL footballers could be made public in the legal case of former Adelaide ruckman Shaun Rehn.

Lawyers for Rehn want to know the incomes of the AFL's upper echelon to help determine exactly how much money Rehn lost when he was injured in 1999.

Rehn required a knee reconstruction after slipping on an artificial disc in the middle of Adelaide's Football Park in a pre-season match in 1999.

The disc, used to help umpires bounce the ball, was removed from every AFL ground, including Football Park, at the instigation of the league soon after Rehn's injury.

Rehn has sued the AFL, SANFL and Adelaide Crows, seeking damages for loss of income as a result of the injury.

On Thursday in the South Australian Supreme Court civil jurisdiction, lawyers for the former Crows and Hawthorn ruckman argued to be given the salaries of AFL players so that they could gauge exactly how much money Rehn lost because of the injury.

But lawyers for the AFL opposed the move.

AFL lawyer David Lovell QC said releasing individual salaries had no direct relevance to Rehn's case, which was not expected to go to trial until next year.

"It's too wide an order, an attempt to trawl through the earnings of players who may not have any relevance (to the case)," Mr Lovell told the court.

He said Rehn was due to earn $245,000 in 2000 - his final year of a three-year contract with the Crows. The ruckman left the Adelaide club for Hawthorn at the end of the 2000 season.

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