THURSDAY night's hefty loss to Carlton made for a horror night for Richmond, but injuries to recruit Ben Cousins and defender Andrew Raines were the final straws.

Six minutes into the final quarter, Cousins re-injured the hamstring he tore in his last game for West Coast – the 2007 qualifying final against Port Adelaide.

For Raines, it was the same knee that kept him to just two matches last season.

Cousins collected 12 possessions in a quiet performance and was running out of defence with Carlton full-forward Brendan Fevola on his tail when his left leg gave way.

He immediately went down to the rooms and didn’t reappear and, while he was being assessed, Raines was helped from the ground.

A hamstring is generally a three-week injury but, at 30, Cousins' history could extend that time.

However, coach Terry Wallace said after the game that Cousins' injury was a 'normal' one and would be treated that way.

"It's a three-to-four week hamstring – it was in the belly of the hamstring so it's a normal string," Wallace said.

"We won't know until tomorrow, but certainly it's not the damage that was done the last time that he did it.

"It's just a legitimate hamstring injury, so we’ll take it from there. We'll have the scans to find where it sits, but it's obviously disappointing for him and everyone involved."

Cousins was the focus of medical treatment at three-quarter time, but Wallace said it wasn’t a hamstring issue then.

"We discussed that with the medical staff, and the information I was given at three-quarter time was that he was sore behind the back of the knee and it was a completely different point.

"He was tracking to have the same game-time as he had in NAB4 (week four of the NAB Cup/Challenge series), so once he was given the all-clear with the knee, there was no reason not to put him back out there."

Wallace also confirmed that the Tigers had done their research before selecting Cousins with the final pick in December's NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft.

"You do all you due diligence," he said. "Matthew Lloyd had his [hamstring] torn off the bone and came back to play good footy out from full-forward to centre-half forward.

"There’s a hundred things. If you sit there like that you’re never going to make a decision ever.

"We knew that there was a multitude of risks with going for a player who’d been out of the game for that period of time, we understood exactly that.

"But he was picked with the last selection on our list. I don’t think since I’ve been here we’ve had a last selection play a game, so we believed that risk was worth taking."

Wallace said the club would find out more about Raines' injury on Friday.

"We’re not sure, we’ve got to wait for the morning to see where it sits," he said.

"It’s the lateral outside of his knee, so we’ll just have to wait and find out how he pulls up, whether it’s cartilage damage or whether it’s just a strain.

"It’s nothing to do with [last year's] dislocation. I think it’s on the same knee, but certainly not related."

Dream Team watch – Ben Cousins is rated a $364,000 midfielder in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009