Cautious Coughlan ready for next step
Jon Ralph | April 03, 2008
RICHMOND midfielder Mark Coughlan will be considered for a VFL return this week after missing three weeks with hamstring soreness. Coughlan played an intra-club game and the club's last practice game at Skilled Stadium in early March but has been sidelined since.
The Tigers are aware many players who return from anterior cruciate ligament surgery are hampered by hamstring soreness, with Coughlan coming off successive knee reconstructions.
The 25-year-old is expected to play a number of VFL games to work his way into form before pushing for senior selection.
Coughlan had hoped to push hard enough in the Geelong practice game to be considered for a Round 1 recall, but instead tweaked his hamstring.
"He was just a little bit sore after coming back from that surgery, but he is coming through and will be considered this week," Tigers football manager Paul Armstrong said.
"He has missed such an amount of football so we want to make sure he is OK. He played that last practice match and then just pulled up a little bit sore."
Meanwhile, the club's first 2007 draft pick - No. 2 selection Trent Cotchin - is following a similar time-frame with achilles soreness after a broken foot.
He will be taken off the club's long-term injury list after Round 3 and will hopefully return through the VFL in coming weeks.
While Carlton's No. 1 pick Matthew Kreuzer will make his debut this week, the Tigers are aware Cotchin will take time to find fitness in the VFL.
Richmond captain Kane Johnson will return against Collingwood this Sunday after serving a self-imposed one-match ban for urinating on a police station.
It is Johnson's 100th game for Richmond after he played 104 games for Adelaide from 1996-2002.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23475377-19742,00.html
