Richmond midfielder Tim Taranto has been sent for scans on an injured wrist, potentially adding to the mounting injury list confronting first-year coach Adem Yze.
The reigning Jack Dyer medallist hurt himself at training on Friday morning, casting doubt on his availability for Richmond’s match against West Coast on Sunday.
The news on Taranto came just hours after Richmond confirmed fellow midfielder Jack Ross would miss about eight weeks of the AFL season with a foot stress fracture.
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Ross, 23, has been on the fringes at Richmond and was the substitute in round one, but had played the Tigers’ past four games in the midfield, averaging 23.5 disposals per match.
He will be replaced by Liam Baker, who returns from suspension against the Eagles at Optus Stadium.
“Unfortunately for Rossy they’ve found a bit of a stress fracture in his foot or his toe and he’ll go in for surgery,” Yze said.
“He was in really good form, he started to get some continuity as a midfielder for us, and he had an interrupted season last year as well.
“We’ll wrap our arms around him and help him through it.”
Yze has already had to deal with losing Josh Gibcus for the season, Tom Lynch (hamstring) for up to three months, and Noah Balta (knee) for about six weeks.
Dion Prestia and Dylan Grimes have also been sidelined early in the season amid Richmond’s 1-4 start.
“It’s not about me, you just feel for the players that are unavailable,” Yze said.
“Irrelevant of where we sit and how we’re going win-loss, we just want to see the kids play.
“So when you see some of your players walking around injured, frustrated, flat, that’s worse than win-loss.”
Lynch was back at Punt Road on Friday after his successful hamstring tendon surgery, and Yze confirmed he was in good spirits and would soon return to running.
Balta is out of a knee brace and was walking laps at training.
Rumours of a mid-season retirement for Dustin Martin circled over the past two weeks, but have been quashed.
Yze certainly wasn’t buying into them, especially after an impressive showing against St Kilda.
“We don’t deal with rumours and things like that,” he said.
“For us our responsibility is to make sure Dusty’s happy, and I’ve said that from day one.
“We want an environment that can allow him to enjoy his footy, enjoy coming into the club every day and hopefully prolong his career.
“So those sorts of things are external, we don’t really worry about, but he came in and played like Dusty (against St Kilda), and that was the main thing.
“We wanted to give him a week off. He was battling with a little calf injury and trying to get through based on the fact that he’s a terrific leader of our footy club and wanted to help us get back on track.
“But the best thing for him was having a week off, and we saw the results of that on the weekend, which is nice.”
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