Richmond is counting the cost of its loss to St Kilda, with the Tigers fearful gun young defender Noah Balta faces the remainder of the season on the sidelines with a serious knee injury.
The 2020 premiership backman's right knee twisted in a tackle in the third term of the Tigers' dreadful defeat to the Saints on Friday night, with coach Damien Hardwick confirming post-game that the club was fearing the 21-year-old had torn his anterior cruciate ligament.
"I don't like to speculate but it doesn't look great at this stage which is disappointing for the lad, but once we get further details we'll pass that on but it looks disappointing at this stage," Hardwick said.
"It looks that way [like an ACL] but once we have that confirmed we'll pass it on."
The Tigers also suspect Nathan Broad has a syndesmosis ankle injury that he suffered early in the game.
As injuries mount, the Tigers could also end round 15 outside of the top-eight after their drubbing at the hands of the Saints, who kept Richmond to their lowest score since 1961, their lowest score at the MCG since 1927 and their sixth-lowest score in their history.
Hardwick said he thought the Tigers' training wasn't at their usual standard in the build-up to the game after last week's bye but said his side was "incredibly poor".
"We're off the pace at the moment, there's no doubt about that. We've got some work to do to try and catch up to those sides ahead of us. We've just got to make sure we play our brand and make sure we bring our brand week in, week out because at the moment we're too inconsistent," Hardwick said.
Richmond was held goalless in the first and final quarters against the Saints and managed just two majors in between.
"I'd like to think we're a proud football club and we don't let people down too often, we don't let our fans down, but I thought tonight we just didn't fire a shot. It was incredibly disappointing. Generally we surge at some stage but it never really happened," Hardwick said.
"A lot of credit goes to the Saints, they played some really good footy, but I was disappointed that at no stage tonight we probably challenged a side that we thought we could beat."
