INJURY-plagued Richmond midfielder Mark Coughlan will miss this weekend's NAB Cup clash with Fremantle due to soreness in his right knee, but the club says preliminary indications are that it is not a serious problem.
The 2003 best-and-fairest has had two knee reconstructions which led to chronic hamstring issues, injuries which have combined to keep him sidelined since round 12, 2006.
Coughlan looked good in the club's intra-club match last Thursday, but felt soreness in the knee today.
Richmond's football operations manager Ross Monaghan said the club was taking a cautious approach, despite it not appearing to be a major problem.
"Mark was just doing some light training and goal kicking this morning, just a little bit of twisting and turning, nothing unusual, and it turns out he's slightly damaged his cartilage," he told richmondfc.com.au on Tuesday night.
"It's not severe – it's being checked out by a specialist either later on tonight or first thing in the morning.
"Probably the worst-case scenario would be an arthroscope and missing two or three weeks, I would guess.
"It's early stages, but it's nothing to do with the knee problems he's had in the past – there's no reconstruction required, nothing like that.
"So it's not a massive alarm bell, it's just a little bit of a setback for him."
Monaghan said everyone at the club was amazed at how well Coughlan had worked through his series of injuries, and said he expected that Coughlan would be available for selection in round one of the season proper.
"He's been amazing in the amount of work he's done to get back to the stage he's at, and everyone was just looking forward to him having a game this week," Monaghan said.
"He got through last week's practice game with no problems at all, and this little incident has occurred.
"But like I say, it's not a tragedy. It's certainly disappointing for him and everyone else involved, but we're hoping he'll be back as good as gold in a few weeks time.
"Two to three weeks is probably worst-case scenario, so he's still every chance of playing in the last round or two of the NAB Cup, and being right for round one, so we can certainly say that's still a possibility."
Coughlan had successful treatment on his troublesome hamstring in Germany last season, which allowed him to return to the track with Coburg for the last few games of the year, and that success had flowed through into the pre-season.
Just three weeks ago he was looking forward to his first AFL game in nearly three years, and declared: "It's pretty exciting – I've done most of the pre-season, and I'm just trying to get through the rest of January now and hopefully put my hand up for that first game against Fremantle over there.
"I'm feeling pretty good in the body - this year's just been a bonus, being able to do a pre-season and the group's looking pretty good for the year, so I'm pretty excited about maybe being a part of that."
The 2003 best-and-fairest has had two knee reconstructions which led to chronic hamstring issues, injuries which have combined to keep him sidelined since round 12, 2006.
Coughlan looked good in the club's intra-club match last Thursday, but felt soreness in the knee today.
Richmond's football operations manager Ross Monaghan said the club was taking a cautious approach, despite it not appearing to be a major problem.
"Mark was just doing some light training and goal kicking this morning, just a little bit of twisting and turning, nothing unusual, and it turns out he's slightly damaged his cartilage," he told richmondfc.com.au on Tuesday night.
"It's not severe – it's being checked out by a specialist either later on tonight or first thing in the morning.
"Probably the worst-case scenario would be an arthroscope and missing two or three weeks, I would guess.
"It's early stages, but it's nothing to do with the knee problems he's had in the past – there's no reconstruction required, nothing like that.
"So it's not a massive alarm bell, it's just a little bit of a setback for him."
Monaghan said everyone at the club was amazed at how well Coughlan had worked through his series of injuries, and said he expected that Coughlan would be available for selection in round one of the season proper.
"He's been amazing in the amount of work he's done to get back to the stage he's at, and everyone was just looking forward to him having a game this week," Monaghan said.
"He got through last week's practice game with no problems at all, and this little incident has occurred.
"But like I say, it's not a tragedy. It's certainly disappointing for him and everyone else involved, but we're hoping he'll be back as good as gold in a few weeks time.
"Two to three weeks is probably worst-case scenario, so he's still every chance of playing in the last round or two of the NAB Cup, and being right for round one, so we can certainly say that's still a possibility."
Coughlan had successful treatment on his troublesome hamstring in Germany last season, which allowed him to return to the track with Coburg for the last few games of the year, and that success had flowed through into the pre-season.
Just three weeks ago he was looking forward to his first AFL game in nearly three years, and declared: "It's pretty exciting – I've done most of the pre-season, and I'm just trying to get through the rest of January now and hopefully put my hand up for that first game against Fremantle over there.
"I'm feeling pretty good in the body - this year's just been a bonus, being able to do a pre-season and the group's looking pretty good for the year, so I'm pretty excited about maybe being a part of that."
