Richmond have confirmed they will be without experienced AFL midfielder Dion Prestia for 8-10 weeks
Prestia suffered a nasty hamstring injury in the Tigers’ thrilling Thursday night loss to Carlton.
In a statement on Thursday, the club said that it was a “significant damage” to his hamstring.
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“Dion was going for a ground ball late in the first quarter and hurt his hamstring,” Richmond’s performance manager Luke Meehan said.
“Follow-up scans have unfortunately showed significant damage.
“It’s looking like a long-term injury for Dion, we’re looking at an 8-10 week period of him being out.”
Prestia has been cursed with soft-tissue injuries during his career.
It has been a rough start to Adem Yze’s coaching career with the Tigers losing players and both its games.
Also in the loss to Carlton, young gun Josh Gibcus went down with a season-ending ACL injury.
The 20-year-old defender injured his right knee in the second quarter, a bitter blow after his 2023 campaign was cruelled entirely by hamstring troubles in the same leg.
After the game on Thursday night, Yze said he felt for the 31-year-old Prestia.
“I feel for (Prestia). It was always a risk with a five-day break,” Yze said.
“You talk about pride and being proud of the performance, on the back of a five-day break, a hot day on the Gold Coast, to be able to sustain that performance the whole night.”
After Richmond announced the news on Thursday, fans wondered if the end was in sight for Prestia.
“Sadly, I’m starting to wonder if we see Dion again. Hamstrings early in games seems to be becoming a pattern. Hopefully our champion does bounce back.” one fan said on social media.
Another said: “8-10 weeks, how terrible. I’m really sorry for Dion. I get he’s put his hand up to play. But this really needs to be explained – half the fan base could see this was a risk.”
And another: “Dion unfortunately looks like he’s nearly at the end of the road.”
