Senior coach Damien Hardwick has this morning confirmed Richmond backman Bachar Houli will not play in Thursday night's clash against Collingwood.

The rebounding defender suffered hamstring soreness following Richmond's season opener win over Carlton.

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"We’ll take the week. We’re very conservative with these calls and we think he’s a very important player so we won’t play him this week," Hardwick said.

“(If) push comes to shove, he could play, but it’s a marathon not a sprint, so we’ll take a week on the chin and move onto next week.”

There will be at least two changes to Richmond's round two side, with key defender Alex Rance set to miss the rest of the season after rupturing his ACL against Carlton.

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