Veteran Tiger Dion Prestia is set to spend another lengthy stint on the sidelines after suffering yet another soft tissue setback.
The 31-year-old failed to make it to quarter time in Richmond's season opener against Carlton last Thursday, with the triple premiership winner substituted out before the opening break after alerting medicos to the injury to his right leg.
As stated by the football club ahead of Round 2, subsequent scans have shown that Prestia has suffered a "significant hamstring injury", forcing the former Sun to miss the next two months, at a minimum.
"Dion was going for a ground ball late in the first quarter and hurt his hamstring. Follow up scans have unfortunately showed significant damage. It's looking like a long-term injury for Dion, we're looking at an 8-10 week period of him being out," Tigers Physical Performance Manager Luke Meehan told Richmond Media.
Should Prestia return at the earliest possible convenience, the former first-round draftee would be available for Richmond's Round 9 fixture against Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday, May 18.
However, with the Calder Cannons product proving unable to play 10 or more games in three of his past five campaigns - including just the two in 2023 - Richmond may yet adopt a slow and steady return for the veteran.
Elsewhere at Punt Road, rising defender Josh Gibcus' 2024 campaign has officially ended, with Meehan stressing the stopper's lessons learned in resilience would hold him in good stead for 2025 and beyond.
"Terrible luck for Josh. He had to learn a lot of lessons last year of mental toughness and resilience," he added.
"Josh is going to have surgery tomorrow (Thursday) to repair his ACL and he's going to miss the rest of this season. We're really confident that Josh will get a full preparation going in the next year, so the timing is not bad from that point of view.
"Josh is going to need a lot of support from his family and the Club, which he'll get. We're looking forward to seeing him again next year."
Richmond will continue the search for its first win of the 2024 season when it plays host to Port Adelaide at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.
