Richmond football manager Neil Balme has assured that concussion-plagued forward Ben Griffiths will return to the senior side this year, possibly within the next few weeks.
The 25-year-old has not played an AFL game since Round 2, where he sustained a concussion in the third quarter of the club’s win over Collingwood.
A VFL return three weeks later lasted only a few minutes after yet another head knock, with Richmond then opting to give Griffiths an indefinite rest to recover from the injury.
Balme says that Griffiths will return to playing within the next few weeks, Richmond’s injury-hit tall forward stocks a huge boost.
“We’re very confident he’ll play within the next couple of weeks,” the Tigers footy boss told SEN’s Hungry For Sport.
“He’s really, really improving. He’s training well.
“He’s had a few of the really significant tests, he's got one more that he has to get past and then we can make sure he does a fair bit of contested work.”
Fears had been raised that the 200cm forward/ruck could miss the rest of the 2017 season and potentially even retire from the game due to the risks of playing the game after continual head knocks.
Former Brisbane Lions defender Justin Clarke cited the long-term effects of concussion as his reason to hang up the boots in 2016 after only four seasons as an AFL player.