RICHMOND captain Trent Cotchin is set to return for next Saturday's crucial clash against the Sydney Swans, despite undergoing surgery on a fractured cheekbone this week.
 
Cotchin suffered his injury early in last Saturday night's loss to Port Adelaide, but bravely played out the game.
 
The Tigers had initially expected him to miss two rounds after he had surgery on Monday.
 
But Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was confident his skipper would return for the Swans clash, when he spoke to the media after the Tigers' 46-point loss to Hawthorn at the MCG on Friday night.
 
"He'll play, I reckon," Hardwick said matter-of-factly.
 
Richmond will also regain key defender Alex Rance against the Swans after a two-week suspension, while Hardwick expects Dylan Grimes will be available after overcoming a hamstring injury.
 
Reece Conca will return to the field next week too, but the midfielder will come back via the VFL having been sidelined since injuring his hamstring in the Tigers' NAB Cup loss to Port Adelaide.
 
"We're starting to get some players back on track which is a positive for us," Hardwick said.
 
When fit, Ivan Maric has been Richmond's No.1 ruckman since crossing from Adelaide ahead of the 2012 season.
 
However, Maric, 30, was dropped for the Hawks clash after finishing with just four disposals in the Tigers' round five loss to Port Adelaide.
 
Hardwick said it had been a "very tough" decision to omit Maric, but expected the big man to bounce back.
 
"He's an outstanding leader of our footy club, a spiritual leader of our footy club. He just isn't playing as good a football as we'd like," Hardwick said.
 
"Look, he has had some significant injuries. He had a back complaint (but) he's moving as freely as we'd like, so once again it's just a circuit breaker to go back and get some form because he's important.
 
"We love what he brings to our footy club. He's been enormous for us over the time I've been here, so we hope he just goes back and reclaims his form as an AFL ruckman."
 
Hardwick was "really excited" by the prospect of playing the Swans next round, saying he took confidence from his team's performance in the first three quarters of Friday night's game, when it dominated at times and went into the final break just nine points down.
 
But the Richmond coach was also mindful his players needed to learn some lessons from the last quarter when they conceded nine goals to the Hawks.
 
"Don't get me wrong, we're incredibly disappointed to lose games, but three quarters of the game we were pretty good in the contest," Hardwick said.
 
"It's easier just to look at the last quarter and feel down, but the reality is we played pretty reasonable football for three quarters.
 
"The last quarter we will go through and look at a few things that happened, but there were certainly some positives to come out of the game tonight."