Reigning Richmond best and fairest Dion Prestia will push his case for a finals berth in a searching session at main training on Friday.

Prestia, 27, hasn't featured at AFL level since suffering a syndesmosis injury in round five that required surgery and required a follow-up procedure in August after an infection was discovered in the wound.

The Tigers are treading carefully with their gun midfielder and their caution could see him put on ice until the second week of finals if they deem he hasn't completed enough conditioning.

Richmond planned to play Prestia in a scratch match on Saturday, however the hitout has been scrapped in favour of training.

Meanwhile, key forward Tom Lynch is more likely to tackle the Lions in a game that will come three weeks after he suffered a hamstring injury against Geelong in round 17.

"That'll be a challenge as to how we deal with both of them," Tigers senior club advisor Neil Balme said on Richmond’s podcast Talking Tigers.

"We love Dion as a player, whether he's done quite enough (remains to be seen).

"We will then make the judgements of how well he's going and how well he feels and is he right from a conditioning point of view to play.

"If he is right, we'll want to play him but it'll be a challenge to fit him into the team.

"I think he's a reasonable chance, almost a certainty to play at some stage in the finals, it's still up in the air whether he plays the first one.

"From the outset we said we thought 'Lynchy' would have enough time to overcome that minor hammy to be in.

"But having said that, even (coach) Damien (Hardwick) said, 'You only get one chance with that', so we'll be conservative with the way we judge it but I'm still reasonably confident he'll get up for this game (Lions)."

The Tigers will also welcome back Shai Bolton from a corked calf that forced him to sit out the round 18 win over Adelaide.

The club's biggest selection headache ahead of the Lions clash is expected to centre on whether back-up ruckman Mabior Chol keeps his place with Lynch returning.