Anderson has been out of action since copping a heavy knock while playing VFL for Box Hill's VFL season-opener against Williamstown on March 29.
He was named in the Hawks' extended squad ahead of their Easter Monday clash against Geelong but failed a fitness test before the final team was announced.
Anderson's shoulder was heavily strapped at Hawks training on Saturday and he trained away from the main group, running half-laps with veteran Brad Sewell, who is coming back from a hamstring strain.
Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said on Saturday that a decision will be made soon as to whether the 20-year-old goes under the knife.
"He's got a shoulder injury that we just need to sit back and assess over the next little while," Clarkson said.
"He's just not right to go at the present time but we'll make a call on him in the next few days.
"We've just got to ascertain whether he requires surgery or not. He's a young player, we need to be mindful, the hard part is that you can quite often carry these for a period of time – particularly when they're early in the season.
"But because it is early in the season, to carry it for the whole year is hard, but if we elect to go surgery it's four months, so his season's effectively over.
"So we've got to make that call over the next couple of weeks."
Anderson has suffered a terrible run of luck recently.
His start to pre-season was delayed after he was hospitalised with a "quite severe" bout of pneumonia in November last year.
He was among Box Hill's best – booting 2.3 and collecting 16 disposals – before copping the knock against Williamstown.
In better news for the Hawks, Norm Smith medallist Brian Lake will be unleashed against Richmond at the MCG on Sunday.
Lake has played the past two matches in the VFL since overcoming a calf complaint and serving his three-week Grand Final suspension.
Clarkson said undersized full-back Kyle Cheney was stiff to make way for Lake in the only change to the Hawks' team which went down to Geelong by 19 points on Easter Monday.
"It's unfortunate for Kyle … he's been pretty good for us," Clarkson said.
"He's played eight pretty important games (including NAB Challenge) for us, but he plays a specific role and Brian's played that role really well for 10 or 12 years.
"He takes great solace out of the fact that he has come in and fulfilled that role really well for us in the eight weeks that Brian hasn't been playing."
Lake could have his hands full on Sunday in a potentially mouth-watering match-up with in-form Tigers star Jack Riewoldt.
Riewoldt has booted 10 goals in the past three weeks and could hold the key to Richmond extending its winning streak over the Hawks to three matches.
The Tigers outmuscled the Hawks by 41 points at the MCG in their only clash last season and Clarkson said the reigning premiers must be better at the contest on Sunday.
"They've been much better than us the last couple of times that we've played," he said.
"At the end of the day their contested ball and clearance wins have really hurt us – particularly early in the game.
"If we allow them easy ball control again early in the game then they'll get their momentum up and they will be really difficult to stop.
"But if we can match them or beat them in that area it's going to give us a good chance of winning the game."
