Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is confident star Dustin Martin will be at his best in Friday’s Preliminary Final against Collingwood.
Hardwick confirmed Martin has been battling a “significant” corkie over the past fortnight, forcing him to undertake an adjusted training period in the lead-up to the Magpies clash.
LISTEN to Friday night's Richmond v Collingwood Preliminary Final LIVE on 1116 SEN from 6:00pm AEST with Gerard Whateley, Anthony Hudson, Garry Lyon, Danny Frawley and Abbey Holmes
“He will train today, so we will get a fair indication of whether he is 95 percent, 100 percent,” Hardwick said.
“Not many players are 100 percent these days at this stage of the year anyway.
“We are confident he will be at his best. He has had a great finals series already, so we are looking forward to that continuing on Friday night.
“He has battled through these sort of things before.
MARTIN WILL DEFINITELY PLAY ON FRIDAY SAYS TIGERS FOOTY BOSS
SEND COTCHIN TO SIDEBOTTOM SAYS LYON
“Once again we have had the week off so we are not in any rush to get him out to train to make he sure he plays, we will take a very conservative approach.
“The reality is, he is not going to get any fitter, stronger or better now.
“What we have got to do is get him to the line and make sure he plays. That’s the positive for us, our fitness staff and Dustin have done a wonderful job.
“It’s a pretty significant corkie with bleeding down into his knee that takes a little bit of time to settle.
“It has settled now and he will train today and be available to play on Friday.”
Martin didn’t need to have his knee drained, Hardwick confirmed.