ONE OF Richmond’s top draftees, No.7 pick Josh Smillie, will miss the opening rounds of his debut season due to a lingering hamstring issue.
The tall midfielder suffered a hamstring injury in a club scratch match in late January and missed both of the Tigers’ pre-season hit outs.
While he’s not suffered a fresh injury, the club says the issue is taking longer than expected to repair.
Fellow top draftee Sam Lalor, last year’s No.1 pick, is also in doubt for the round one game against Carlton on March 13 due to a fractured jaw.
“Repeat scans have shown that while Josh has not re-injured his hamstring, it has not healed as well as we would have liked,” high performance boss Ben Serpell said.
“Rather than push him towards those early games, we will ensure he has a good block of training and strength work behind him before he returns to play.”
Injury-plagued veteran Dion Prestia and winger Hugo Ralphsmith will also miss the early rounds of the season for the Tigers, but veteran forward Tom Lynch has been declared a certain starter.
