Houli won't play: Set for 'mini pre-season'Jennifer Phelan
afl.com.au
Jul 26, 2018 PREMIERSHIP defender Bachar Houli won't play at any level this weekend as the Tigers look to restock his post-injury fitness with a training block.
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick insisted the 30-year-old returned too early from the groin complaint that saw him miss five games from round 10, despite him pulling up sore after his round 17 comeback.
Hardwick said there was a chance Houli would appear in the VFL in round 20, but this week he would focus on training after deeming his groin "not to the level" he was comfortable playing at.
"He won't play this week. We'll take a conservative approach with him," Hardwick said.
"He's probably started to miss too much footy, so we'll pull him back a bit, get a good training block into him again just to make sure he's ready to go.
"It's one of those injuries where we could probably push the envelope, but we're not quite sure how it's going to respond, so we'd rather be a bit conservative and make sure when he's ready to go, he's ready to go.
"It's a little bit disappointing for us because he's such an important player for us, but we're hoping in the short term that turns around."
Hardwick confirmed Houli would return through the VFL when fit enough to play.
Shane Edwards trained on Thursday despite an injury scare earlier in the week, as did Dustin Martin after copping a heavy knock to the face in the win over St Kilda on Friday night.
Liam Baker and Patrick Naish also trained as part of the squad and are a chance to make their AFL debuts.
Hardwick said a decision on whether either would be brought in for their first games in front of an expected 85,000-plus crowd against Collingwood on Saturday would be made after training.
"It's a tough decision as coach … whether we continue to go with what we know, or do we give a guy a chance?" he said.
"There's two ways of looking at it, you can either worry about it or you can say this kid's right for the challenge and we throw him in, and they're the decisions that we'll make."
Reece Conca was also on the track on Thursday as he ramps up his training load in a bid to return from a dislocated ankle in the coming weeks.
While Nathan Broad returned from a fractured cheekbone ahead of schedule last week, Dan Butler (ankle) and Jack Graham (shoulder) won't repeat the feat against the Pies.
"They're on the horizon, probably next week I'll have a better indication of where they're at," Hardwick said.
"They're certainly not available this week, but we'll have a better understanding of where they fall into place as of next week."
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-07-26/tiger-houli-set-for-mini-preseason
