Richmond has confirmed Dion Prestia will make his long-awaited return from an ankle injury in Friday night’s qualifying final against Brisbane.
The 27-year-old hasn’t played since Round 7, with his return being a timely boost for the Tigers who will also regain midfielder Shai Bolton for the clash.
“(Dion Prestia has) been training for a couple of weeks now, but last Friday we did a bit of an internal practice match and he participated in the whole game and has pulled up really well,” Richmond’s Physical Performance Manager Peter Burge said on Richmond’s website.
“So he'll be available for selection this week.
"Shai (Bolton) trained fully last Friday in the practice match that we had, and he'll be available for selection as well this week."
Richmond will be sweating on the fitness of forward Tom Lynch in the lead up to this week’s final, with the club waiting to see how he pulls up from training in the coming days before making a call on his availability.
“Tom (Lynch) has been running at high intensity for the past week, and on Saturday he completed a fairly strong session with high intensity running and some football,” Burge said.
“Tom's going to join in to a little bit of skills on Monday, and we'll make a decision later in the week as to his availability for this week's game."
The club said they were hopeful Josh Caddy would be available to take on Brisbane as well, but confirmed Jack Higgins would be sidelined due to a calf strain.
Jake Aarts has recovered from shoulder soreness and will also be right to play.