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.

Dustin Martin, calf soreness

“Dustin’s great. He had a good running session yesterday and he’s symptom free . . . He just needed an extra day or two from the soreness of last week. Unfortunately, with the six-day break, we just got caught a tiny bit short. So he’ll be fine for this week. We expect him to train all week and play.” 

David Astbury, sprained ankle

“He’s tracking really well. Obviously, during the game, he came off the ground and was pretty sore . . . his ankle had blown up like a balloon. The medical guys worked some magic at half-time and he was able to get back out there and finish the game. He’s still pretty sore and bruised, but he’s functioning quite well. So we think he’s more probable than doubtful . . . It’s looking fairly optimistic that he’ll be able to train later in the week. We’ll see how that goes . . .”

Bachar Houli, groin injury

“He’s started running, which is great. He’s probably still a couple of weeks away. I would think he’s more doubtful for the Swans game after the bye (Round 15), but beyond that he’s some chance. He also had minor finger surgery last week. It was just a very minor thing that he was battling for the last couple of weeks, so it was a chance to get that sorted out. The great thing is he’s running, he’s slowly starting to condition again, and once his groin symptoms are completely gone, then we can accelerate his progression quickly.”

Dion Prestia, calf injury

“Dion’s at a point now where he hasn’t had any symptoms for nearly two weeks. He’s getting a really good conditioning base into him and doing a little bit of footy. It’s like a mini pre-season and it’s going really well. We want to set him up for a strong second half of the season.

Oleg Markov, knee injury

“Oleg has done an MCL, a medial collateral ligament injury in his knee. It’s probably going to be a four-to-six-week injury. We know with Oleg, though, he’s super positive and he is a good healer, generally. So, hopefully, it’s the shorter end of that term than the later. It’s disappointing because he was just starting to play some good footy. But seeing him today, he’s really positive. He’s always got a smile on his face, and generally his recovery time’s a little bit quicker than most people’s.”

Daniel Rioli, foot

“He’s absolutely fine. He just got stood on (during the last quarter of last Sunday’s VFL game v Williamstown). It was over the scar on his foot. But he was doing his conditioning after the game that we’ve carefully planned. He’s played four games now, albeit some of them were shortened games. He’s played some really good minutes in the last couple of weeks. It’s been a good preparation from Daniel. He’s really embraced the long-term approach and he’s in a position now where, hopefully, he can step up to the next level . . .”

Mabior Chol, broken foot

“It was the last drill in a training session two weeks ago . . . it was the last minute. He took a mark and then landed on the ground, twisted and felt something in the outside of his foot, his fifth metatarsal. He had a little fracture in there. It’s pretty painful, so he’s now in a boot and it’s going to be a medium to longer term injury, somewhere between eight to 10 (weeks), maybe even more. It’s hard to tell at this stage. He’s in a boot for three weeks and then he can start to weight bear. It will be an on-going assessment with these sorts of things. Sometimes you don’t know how long or how short it’s going to be. But at this stage it’s certainly going to be a longer term.”