Add Category
Richmond superstar Dustin Martin has been ruled out of the Tigers' meeting with their former coach Damien Hardwick on the Gold Coast.
The 32-year-old is dealing with a corked calf and Richmond is not taking any risks with the three-time Norm Smith medallist.
Factoring into the Tigers' decision is they take on Carlton at the MCG next Thursday night, just five days after facing the Suns at Carrara.
"He's obviously a bit sore," new Richmond coach Adem Yze said on Thursday.
"The risk of him playing this weekend is going to be too high.
"He's too important for us to go and push really hard for round zero up there, flying up, all those sorts of things have come into calculation."
Martin was cleared of any serious injury after undergoing precautionary scans on Tuesday.
"It doesn't matter who we're playing, he just wants to play footy," Yze said.
"Knowing him, he'd be really anxious and angry about the fact that he's not playing because he loves playing the game.
"Irrelevant of playing Gold Coast, it's round one and he wants to get started.
"But we've just got to be really smart (with Martin)."
The four-time All-Australian is not the only experienced Tiger sitting out of Hardwick's first game in charge of the Suns since leaving Punt Rd last year.
Captain Toby Nankervis (foot), star forward Tom Lynch (foot) and midfielder Jack Graham (quad) were already ruled out.
Like Martin, Nankervis and Lynch are pushing to face the Blues in their second game of the season.
Graham, however, is likely to be sidelined for up to four weeks.
AAP
Sports content to make you think... or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered each Friday.