Richmond hasn’t given up hope that another of its ‘forgotten’ men - Daniel Connors - can yet salvage something out of a season wrecked by injury.

Connors, who averaged 23.7 disposals per game last year as a rebounding defender, in his best season of league football, has been sidelined for much of 2011 with a tendon injury in his quadriceps.

“Dan’s really frustrated with it, as we all are internally.  It’s the nature of tendon-related injuries . . . notoriously, they’re slow to heal,” Richmond’s Elite Performance Manager Matthew Hornsby told the Roar Vision Medical Room.

“He’s quite good up to 90%, but just seems to struggle at that top end.
“We obviously don’t want to push it and cause a bigger problem, which means we have to be fairly conservative with it and allow it to heal and strengthen.
“But he’s pretty close . . . he had a really good session today, he felt really good.  So, we’re hopeful that he’ll still see some good game time in the next couple of weeks.”

And, the Tigers anticipate their captain, Chris Newman, also will participate in on-field action before the season’s over.

“We’re really optimistic about that and I know Chris is really keen to get back out and play,” Hornsby said. “He’s had three running sessions now and felt really good, doing a bit more each time.

“So, really, it’s just a matter of us building him up over the next week or so and see how he responds to that increased work load.  Then, hopefully, we can see him play for a couple of games at the end of the year.”