Richmond’s first pick in last year’s National Draft, Corey Ellis, has joined in full training with the Tigers’ playing group for the first time.

Ellis, a talented inside midfielder, who was selected at pick 12 overall by Richmond, had been recovering from surgery to his right foot that he underwent late last year.

“Corey’s had a very steady progression, being a first-year player and given the surgery he had and how much he’d missed,” Richmond’s Physical Performance Manager Peter Burge told ‘Roar Vision’.

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“You don’t want to rush them (young players) back . . . (he’s) a young player, 18 years of age, with a reasonably serious injury, who hadn’t trained or played since August last year.  So we were always going to take our time with it, do the right thing by him coming into a new club, and just teach him a bit of patience. 

“He’s got a long career ahead – a 10-year-plus player – so there’s no rush to get someone like that back in too soon.

“We should see him, hopefully, in the practice matches for the VFL in a couple of weeks.

“It’s really exciting to see a young player of his ability come back into training.”

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Despite Ellis having not trained with the main playing group at Tigerland until now, Burge has no doubts about his fitness levels.

“In the ‘rehab’ group they get smashed . . . our rehab guys work them extremely hard, so usually when those athletes come back into our group they’re actually ready to go, above and beyond what the group’s doing,” Burge said. 

“We always make sure that whatever you can handle in rehab is above what is required in the game.”