Richmond stay hopeful Dustin Martin will overcome his newest hamstring setback in time to play within the AFL conflict with Collingwood, however have dominated out Jayden Short.
Dashing defender Short has been sidelined by a calf damage, whereas gun midfield recruit Jacob Hopper (knee) can be “doubtful” for Friday evening’s MCG blockbuster.
Martin was substituted out of the Tigers’ away win over Adelaide on Saturday and had scans on return to Melbourne the next day.
On Monday, Richmond confirmed the 31-year-old had “hamstring awareness” and should show his health at this week’s major coaching session.
Martin has a historical past of hamstring accidents, which performed a big function in limiting the three-time premiership hero to only 9 video games final season.
“We made the decision during the game to take Dustin off the ground, given his injury history and the six-day break,” Richmond bodily efficiency supervisor Luke Meehan mentioned.
“We’re just going to monitor how he recovers off the game and make a decision on Wednesday and see if he gets through training with regards to playing this week.”
Meehan revealed Short performed the opening two rounds of the season beneath duress.
“We’re going to make a decision now to not play him this week and get him to do some strong rehab training on (the calf), and get himself right for the rest of the season,” Meehan mentioned.
Hopper, recruited from GWS within the low season, injured his knee in an “ugly” incident and is “pretty lucky”, in keeping with Meehan, to nonetheless be in rivalry for the Collingwood conflict.
Like Martin, he faces a health check on Wednesday.
Tom Lynch (corked leg) is evident to play however the Tigers’ injury-hit defence – already lacking Robbie Tarrant (hip) and Josh Gibcus (hamstring) – will endure one other blow when Nathan Broad is suspended for his sling sort out on Adelaide’s Patrick Parnell.
Broad will entrance the AFL tribunal on Tuesday evening and is going through a ban of no less than three matches.
Meanwhile, Fremantle are hopeful Nat Fyfe may return in Sunday’s derby towards West Coast.
Fyfe was a late withdrawal from the Dockers’ round-two loss to North Melbourne with a foot damage, after which coach Justin Longmuir mentioned the famous person may miss an additional two matches.
But the midfielder turned ahead may return in a well timed enhance for winless Fremantle towards their arch-rival.
“Nat’s dealing with some plantar fascia issues in his foot and has been on and off for a while now,” Dockers soccer boss Peter Bell mentioned on Monday.
“We’ve treated that in the latter stages of last week and we’ll see how he progresses through training this week as to his availability to play in the derby.”
Veteran Fremantle goal-sneak Michael Walters is an opportunity to play elevated minutes within the derby after kicking two majors as an alternative towards North Melbourne.
Melbourne are assured All-Australian defender Steven May will return from a minor calf damage towards Sydney on Sunday.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
