\n Josh Smillie will not be available for selection for the remainder of the AFL season.\n <\/p>\n
Richmond confirms that midfielder Josh Smillie will not be available for selection for the remainder of the AFL season following a new injury setback.<\/p>\n
Smillie had returned to the main group in the past fortnight and was pushing for a VFL return until he felt discomfort in his quad following a recent training session.<\/p>\n
Scans have since revealed a quad strain that will rule him out for at least the next three weeks.<\/p>\n
The Club will keep Smillie working towards a potential return to action through the VFL finals, given Richmond is currently placed 8th on the state league ladder.<\/p>\n
The nature of Smillie\u2019s quad injury will enable him to continue running. However, he will need to progress the volume and intensity of kicking at distance.<\/p>\n
Smillie had been undertaking a conditioning block over the last eight weeks after overcoming a hamstring injury he suffered in May.<\/p>\n
The 196cm midfielder had previously also injured his hamstring in match simulation in January, affecting his pre-season training load.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Richmond Executive General Manager of Football Performance, Tim Livingstone, said that the Club had taken no risks with Smillie across the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is only the beginning of what will be a long journey for Josh at the elite level, and because of this, we have not taken any risks with him this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are preparing Josh\u2019s body to be a long-term AFL player and cope with the rigours of being a professional athlete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it is frustrating for him and us that he has not been able to play more football this year, the reality is his body has not responded to increases in the volume and intensity of training required to perform at senior level.<\/p>\n
\u201cJosh has put in a lot of hard work this year and will have learned a lot to help best prepare him for 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking forward to seeing Josh out on the field next season and are both excited and confident about what he will be able to do, such is his talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smillie has played four VFL matches for the season, all between VFL Rounds 3 and 6. He has averaged 16 disposals and three tackles per game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Smillie will not be available for selection for the remainder of the AFL season. Richmond confirms that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-49607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}