RICHMOND has suffered a fresh injury blow with key defender David Astbury set to miss Saturday’s clash with the Western Bulldogs.
Astbury badly rolled an ankle in the Tigers’ round-six win over Melbourne, coach Damien Hardwick telling reporters on Thursday it was unlikely he would take his place in the line-up at Marvel Stadium.
“He probably won’t play this week … he won’t train today,” Hardwick said.
“It was an incredible effort to play (out the game), with the size of his ankle he was lucky to get his boot back on.
“He’s looking increasingly unlikely at this stage.
“He’s an important play for us and we’ll give him every chance but it’s probably looking unlikely.”
The defender is set to join premiership players Trent Cotchin (hamstring), Jack Riewoldt (knee), Jack Graham (hamstring) and Shaun Grigg (knee, hip) on the sidelines for Richmond, who are eighth with a 4-2 record heading into the game.
Riewoldt’s injury-interrupted season continued when he damaged the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee against the Demons.
The spearhead avoided surgery, but Hardwick expects he will be missing until around the club’s round 14 bye.
“It’s disappointing to lose good players, there’s no doubt about that, but we’re a forward-looking footy club,” the coach said.
“There’s not much we can do about that so we look at what we can do.
“It creates an opportunity for something else to have a look at that may help us down the road.
“We’ll get those guys back and that will add to us again.”
© AAP 2019
