TRENT Cotchin is in doubt for Richmond's clash with Fremantle this Sunday after a desperate goal-saving lunge against Collingwood resulted in a sore knee.
The Tigers' captain appeared to cannon his right knee into the goal post when he slid in to stop Magpie Tom Phillips – who was laying on his back next to the post – from kicking what would have been a remarkable goal late in the fourth quarter.
Scans cleared the Tigers' captain of structural damage on Monday.
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Cotchin wants to play against the Dockers, but whether he lines up will be determined by how he feels when he gets moving this week.
"He feels a lot better today than he did yesterday," Richmond football manager Neil Balme told AFL.com.au on Tuesday.
"We're not quite sure how he'll go. There's some chance he could miss this week but he's relatively confident now, so we'll see how he goes."
Cotchin limped out the remaining five minutes of the Tigers' win over the Pies after the incident but appeared very sore in the game's immediate aftermath.
The Tigers expect to know before they name their squad on Thursday night if he'll be fit to play.
Meanwhile, Nick Vlastuin and Josh Caddy are expected to be available after successfully returning from injury against the Magpies.
Both missed the Tigers' Anzac Day Eve win over Melbourne – Vlastuin with a calf and Caddy with hamstring soreness – but have pulled up fine from Sunday.
This week's game will be the Tigers' third in 13 days, which has presented them with the extended challenge of maintaining the balance between recovery and training.
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Coach Damien Hardwick acknowledged on Sunday that this week would be where they'd start to see some accumulated soreness emerge.
Balme said the players would be managed individually over the next few days before ramping things up on Friday.
"They're not too bad. They'll be a little bit lighter earlier in the week and they'll do some work later on," he said.
"Fortunately, it's a Sunday game so we'll be able to do some work later in the week.
"A fair bit of it is individually driven, they'll either back them off or put a bit of work into them, depending on how they feel."
Premiership forward Daniel Rioli continues to build his fitness on the training track, but is yet to pencil in a date for his VFL return after two foot operations.
Meanwhile, defender Oleg Markov will miss a few weeks with a quad strain he suffered in Saturday's VFL win over Werribee.
Markov played seven AFL games last season, but hasn't been able to break back into the side since round 23.
