RICHMOND coach Jade Rawlings has confirmed that Matthew Richardson has not been offered a new contract for 2010 at this stage.

Rawlings also said no decision had been made about whether the club wanted to offer the Richmond superstar a new deal before a new coach is appointed.

The interim coach sounded positive about the chances of the 34-year-old playing on, but was firm in his rebuttal of the idea that a new deal was on the table.

"List management have met, and we've spoken about his situation, and when he gets out of hospital – we're quite positive how the meeting went – and once he's confirmed he wants to play next year, then the progression of the contract will go from there," Rawlings said before Tiger training on Thursday morning.

"There's uncertainty because of who the coach will be next year, but it's a list management decision, and it'll be all finalised once he's been spoken to.

"Most Richmond people would like to see him go around but that decision will be made once we speak to Matthew."

The issue is complicated by the fact that the Tigers are currently searching for a new coach, but Rawlings said that the list management committee could make a decision on players despite not having a permanent senior coach.

Rawlings said there wasn't much that Richardson could do in order to push his case due to being under the knife as the media conference was taking place.

"He's not going to be able to [prove himself] physically, because he's had an operation this morning on his knee.

"The advice was after the scan the other day that while there wasn't damage to the hamstring, it's just a bit sore and rest is the only thing that's going to prevent any further occurrence of what he suffered on Saturday."