Top 10 pick sidelined with recurrence of a past injury

The Tigers have refused to rule out surgery on the shoulder of their highly touted draftee, Sam Cumming. 

The 18-year-old South Australian suffered a subluxation of his right shoulder in Friday night's pre-season outing against the Melbourne Demons. The North Adelaide product is no stranger to the injury, having suffered it in August of last year.

The Tigers are removing the youngster from contact drills for the next month, after which time a re-assessment will be made.

Ben Serpell, Richmond's high performance boss alluded to a cautious, big picture approach being employed with regards to Cumming's return-to-play timeline.

“Sam will have follow up scans as we go along and we will of course continually assess his shoulder stability, and we will decide our next steps from there, which may include surgery," he said. 

“Given he is a young player, our decision-making process will of course factor in the best thing for his entire career, not just this year.”

Cumming joins a raft of first choice Tigers in the rehabilitation room. Excitement machine Taj Hotton will miss a considerable chunk of time with bone stress in his hip, the club announced in recent days. Josh Smillie, another top draftee, is still recovering from his November quad surgery, while crafty veteran Dion Prestia and favourite son Nick Vlastuin are also under injury clouds as the Tiger's season opener looms.