RICHMOND defender David Astbury wants in after having a stingray barb removed from his foot, while the luckless Chris Knights could make his long-awaited comeback against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday, Tigers coach Damien Hardwick says.
Astbury was left out of Richmond's 27-point season-opening win over Carlton after undergoing surgery for the freakish incident in Port Phillip Bay.
The 195cm backman still has stitches in his foot, although he played VFL last weekend and is available to take on the Dogs.
Hardwick said it would be a tough decision to change Richmond's key-position set-up, which helped restrict the Blues to 11 goals.
"David will be thereabouts. He played pretty well last week in our VFL side," he said.
"It's one of those ones with match-ups. They've obviously got not a tall forward line the Bulldogs, and all our keys (defenders) played pretty well. But he'll certainly put his hand up to play.
"It's been a really good recovery from the stingray sting. It will be a little bit of a problem for probably two-to-three weeks but he's managing the pain pretty well."
The Tigers will be forced to make at least one change after star midfielder Brett Deledio accepted a one-match ban for his bump on Carlton's Simon White.
Hardwick, who said Deledio (Achilles) would have struggled to be fit to take on the Dogs after he was substituted out of the Carlton win in the last quarter, confirmed former Crow Knights would be in the squad.
The 28-year-old forward has not played since a rough trot with injuries started when he ruptured his patella tendon – the same injury suffered by Gold Coast's Jaeger O'Meara last weekend – in May 2013.
"He will be within the 25 this week, I've got no doubt about that," Hardwick said.
"He was pretty impressive on the weekend. He had 28 touches, kicked one or two goals…he's a guy that has improved.
"Offensively we know what he can deliver. Defensively he had a couple of things he needed to fix up from a contested nature, but he's working on those, so he'll be thereabouts this week."
Hardwick said Deledio would do "everything possible" to be available against the Brisbane Lions in round three, although the coach is confident his side can perform without their vice-captain.
"Probably 12 months ago I don't think we would have had the depth to cover that loss, but the really impressive thing for us is our recruiting staff have done a great job bringing in talent," he said.
Against the Blues, ex-Cat Taylor Hunt and NAB AFL Rising Star nominee Kamdyn McIntosh led the win while prime movers Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin and Deledio were well held.
"It's a great sign, because it means we're not relying on those guys to get us over the line," Hardwick said. "For us to take the next step we need the next tier of players to step up."
Richmond will face a rising Bulldogs midfield brigade on Saturday, and Hardwick said he was impressed by the ferocity of Luke Beveridge's side in their 10-point win over West coast.
"They were incredible. Their forward 50 tackling – I think they had 23 or 24 tackles inside 50 last week and had a lot of stoppages in that area," he said.
"They probably showed even last year their ability to win contested ball, to tackle, to pressure the opposition. It's gone up a notch again.
"We're a good contested side also, so it's a matter of absorbing that pressure and getting the ball on the outside."
