Richmond’s Physical Performance Manager Peter Burge provides ‘Roar Vision’ with an update on the injury status of several members of the Tigers’ playing group.
Jack Riewoldt, PCL
“The ‘doc’ examined him during the game (Anzac Eve v Melbourne) and post-game he told us that it’s probably going to be a six-eight-week injury, a PCL strain. It was as expected after his scans . . . We did see the surgeon and got an opinion, but based on his scans he doesn’t need surgery. So now he’ll go into a rehab program and be off legs for the first couple of weeks. We just want that ligament to strengthen up and we need to work on his quad strength. In the short term he won’t be doing too much, and then we’ll slowly progress his running and make sure he’s strong . . . We’ll probably look to after the bye as a realistic return.”
David Astbury, rolled ankle
“He’s pulled up quite well. He was certainly bruised and swollen after the (Anzac Eve) game. Dave is the ultimate professional. He had the foot in a bucket straight after the game and I dare say for the next 48 hours he was doing that. But he’s come in today walking around and jogged down the hallway. So he’ll do a little bit of running tomorrow and will aim to fully train on Thursday. We’ll make an assessment from there if he’s ready to play.”
Trent Cotchin, hamstring
“Right now we’ve just put Trent back into a bit of a holding pattern. We’ll keep him at about 70-80 percent speed in the program and then we’ll carefully make that progression to 85-90-95 percent full speed over the next couple of weeks. Very hard to put a time-frame on it. It certainly won’t be short term, in the next week or two, but I’d be fairly confident in three to four weeks that we’ll see him back on the park.”
Shaun Grigg, hip
“Currently with Shaun we’re dealing with the hip issue and we’re looking at different avenues of how to progress that and get to a level where he can increase his intensity in training. But it’s not going to be short term. We’re probably looking still at the long term . . .”
Jack Graham, hamstring
“Jack, warming up for the game (VFL last Saturday v Casey), was doing some stoppage work and noticed something in his hamstring after picking up a ground ball. He didn’t think too much of it and then started the game. But within five minutes he wasn’t comfortable running at top speed. It certainly wasn’t anything dramatic or a serious injury, but we just took the safe option to bring him off and wrap him up at that time. Jack will certainly miss this week. Like with all our other soft-tissue injuries, we’ve just got to take a safe approach and put him through the rehab process and get him back training at intensity until he’ll play again.”
Mav Weller, back
“Mav had a back issue. He withdrew from the (VFL) game at half-time. It’s something he has managed in the past. He got a knock during the game and then it just started to seize up at half-time and he flagged with us that he wouldn’t be able to complete the game. I anticipate he’d settle down and be a probable for this week. We’ll assess him at Thursday training and see how he feels. But at this stage, I think he’s looking fairly good to play again this week.”
Oleg Markov, knee
“Oleg had minor surgery two weeks ago to explore through the knee, the lateral meniscus. He had a little bit of a clean-up there and he’s responded extremely well. He’s already running and changing direction. He’ll do a little bit of training later this week and we’re looking for a return to play next week, which is a little quicker than we expected . . .”
