HOT ON the heels of good injury reports for the Tigers is the news that the coach is also well on the way to recovery.

Terry Wallace spent a fair chunk of last week directing proceedings from his hospital bed, then got schlepped around the MCG for Saturday's clash with the Bombers on a Medicart to avoid worsening his respiratory infection.

Still not out of the woods completely, Wallace was still showing his trademark optimism when he fronted the media.

"What I've got now is what most of Melbourne's got, and that's still some chest infection and some coughing, and I'm still on tablets for another fortnight," Wallace said.

"But what I was dealing with last week was far worse.

"I had breathing difficulties, very much more like an asthmatic-type situation – I've never had asthma, so it wasn't asthma as such, but I was really struggling for breath, I had an episode on the Thursday and the Friday night which was fairly unpleasant.

"It had me on oxygen and a nebuliser and that sort of stuff, so it was pretty uncomfortable for the week, but we managed to work our way through."

Wallace said the game against West Coast at Subiaco the week before gave him more issues than the one against Essendon, despite the tense finish.

"To be honest, I had more difficulty with the coaching the week before over in Perth, even though we had a nice win.

"I was probably more ill in relation to the shakes and the shivers and all those sort of things that you get with the flu.

"I did speak to the boys after the game and I said I was very thankful that it wasn't a heart complaint that I was going through during the week, and that it was only a breathing complaint."