Richmond has confirmed Dylan Grimes will likely be available to play in Round 1 on Thursday night, however fellow defender Nick Vlastuin is facing a longer stint on the sidelines.
Grimes underwent surgery last week on an injured thumb and was originally thought to be touch and go for the Tigers’ opening fixture.
However, Richmond are set to be boosted by the anticipated return of their co-captain after the club confirmed he completed full training on Tuesday.
“Dylan trained today (Tuesday) and also on Sunday. So, Dylan's completed the full session today, it looks like he'll potentially be available for Thursday night. But, we'll do a final tick off with the medical team, Dylan and the match committee and assess that,” Richmond physical performance manager Peter Burge confirmed, via the club's website.
Burge also confirmed tough midfielder Jack Graham was available to be selected, but the news wasn’t so positive for Vlastuin and Kamdyn McIntosh.
McIntosh won’t play in Round 1 and the Tigers are hoping he’ll be fit for Round 2 after a calf complaint, and Vlaustin is out for longer after suffering a setback in his return from a hamstring injury.
Vlastuin originally went down with the injury against Geelong in the club’s first practice game and reinjured the same hamstring at training late last week when kicking.
“It's a really tricky one, you've got hamstring injuries that you get running really fast, and you've got these hamstring injuries that occasionally occur with kicking, and they can be very tricky, and the rehab and the return from those needs to be carefully progressed,” Burge said.
“We're going to need to take a bit more time and care with his rehabilitation. We're thinking he'll miss a couple of weeks, it's very hard to put a time frame (on it), but hopefully not too long.”
Burge also revealed that Kane Lambert wouldn’t have surgery on a hip injury reported last week after consultations with specialists, suggesting the midfielder could be involved in match practice in a “number of weeks”.
Meanwhile, Carlton has seen “encouraging signs” in Sam Walsh’s return from an ankle injury.
The club refused to put a timeline on his return, but said Walsh has “responded well” as his rehab intensity stepped up in recent days.
He’s expected to miss anywhere between a week and a month of the AFL season.
The Blues also confirmed Liam Stoker would be playing football again in the next two or three weeks after rehabbing an ankle injury.