Cousins in cotton wool for another week, say Tigers (RFC)

[one-eyed]

Cousins in cotton wool for another week, say Tigers
richmondfc.com.au
By Mic Cullen 4:57 PM Thu 23 April, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: RICHMOND star recruit Ben Cousins will not play anywhere this weekend as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury.

The 30-year-old tore the muscle during the Tigers first-round loss to the Blues, and despite early claims that it was a very minor strain, this will mean he has missed four rounds of football.

Richmond football manager Ross Monaghan said the club was taking a conservative approach to Cousins' rehabilitation.

Hopefully he'll be right next week – he could have played this week but we just wanted to give him an extra week to make sure," Monaghan said.

More to follow.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/75523/default.aspx

[one-eyed]

cont.

"It was relatively minor and he's recovered fairly quickly – we thought it would probably be three, maybe four weeks, and that'll make it about four next week.

"We were hoping he might have been okay for this week, but as the week's gone on we just thought he probably needs another weekend off.

"We'll decide during next week whether he'll play at AFL level or he'll come back through Coburg."

Monaghan said young defender Andrew Raines would also be returning through Coburg this weekend as he recovered from a knee injury also suffered in round one.

"Rainsy will have some match limitations, but he's pretty right to play most of the game, really," he said.

"He'll just get rotated like anyone else.

"He's really 100 per cent to play, but in the course of rotations, he might play 75 or 80 per cent, I guess."

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/blogarticle/tabid/14215/newsid/75535/default.aspx

[one-eyed]

Richmond's star recruit Ben Cousins will be rested for another week
By Roger Vaughan
foxsports.com.au
April 24, 2009

Richmond will rest star recruit Ben Cousins for another week in an effort to ensure his eventual AFL return is not hit by another injury.

The Brownlow medallist has not played since tearing his hamstring in the disastrous round-one loss to Carlton.

There were hopes that Cousins would play for VFL affiliates Coburg this weekend.

But Cousins' history of hamstring injuries, his year out of the game and his age (30) mean the Tigers will take no chances.

"He's done all the training and we just got to the stage where we thought to give him an extra week," said under-siege coach Terry Wallace.

"Just on the circumstances behind his injuries, it's longer than you would normally take, but he's different than a normal player.

"Particularly the medical staff, but (also) myself, I wanted to have him on the training week absolutely for a week and a half to two weeks, where you know he's done everything in his powers.

"Then you make a decision, do we bring him back through senior footy or VFL football?"

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25380160-23210,00.html