RICHMOND key forward Tyrone Vickery suffered a knee injury in the club's VFL trial against Essendon on Saturday morning.

Vickery limped from the field in the opening term and didn't return.

The club is waiting to determine both the severity of the injury and the best course of action regarding treatment.

He is expected to have scans on Sunday.

The 24-year-old played 12 games last year before being suspended for striking West Coast ruckman Dean Cox.

He struggled to hit form though, averaging fewer than 11 disposals and two goals a game.

Richmond opted to leave him out of the line-up that beat Carlton on Friday night, going with Jack Riewoldt and Ben Griffiths as their tall forwards.

Tigers VFL coach Tim Clarke was hopeful Vickery’s injury would be minor.

"First thoughts, they [the club doctors] didn't think it was that bad, but we will have to wait and see until he gets scans," he told Fairfax Media.

"He'd been involved in two or three contests, but it was about 10 minutes into the first quarter, so there wasn't a huge amount of opportunity for him."