FORMER No.1 pick Ellie McKenzie has revealed the nature of her unique calf injury for the first time.

Speaking to womens.afl, the Richmond midfielder said she required an operation on extra calf muscle that had grown around her Achilles and into her foot.

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"It was a bit of a weird one. I had a bit of extra muscle in my calf, it was causing me some complaints last year," McKenzie said.

"We had some scans and had a look around to see what was going on, and it turns out I had extra soleus muscle in my calf that we went and removed and started that rehab journey from there.

"I had that surgery in August. It was a long rehab process and something that we don't see often as athletes. I was learning on the job, and so was the medical staff, but I think we handled it pretty well with a really good plan moving forward, and we were lucky we were able to move that goal forward and actually return a bit earlier than expected."

The extensive recuperation sidelined McKenzie for the first four rounds of the season, with the Tiger recording nine disposals, three tackles and a behind on her return against the Western Bulldogs, playing limited minutes.

The Tigers lost to the Bulldogs by 17 points, with the loss further soured by season-ending injuries sustained by Hannah Burchell (ACL) and Laura McClelland (ankle syndesmosis), while the extent of Kate Dempsey's ankle injury will be assessed during the week.

It was the Dogs' first win for the season, beating Richmond in the contested ball (112-87) and total disposals (244-183).

"The message (from coach Ryan Ferguson) was we kept our fight up. We ended up having one rotation, so we really kept fighting. Even though the going was getting tough, we just kept at it, and I think that was a strong message going forward.

"We won in clearances (by one), so that was a positive, but around the ground and that contested possession work, I think we lacked a bit, so I think we'll go ahead at training and work on that physical side of things."

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