Taranto needs surgery as Tigers' injury crisis worsens

The reigning Jack Dyer medallist went down during Richmond's main session at Punt Rd on Friday morning, ruling him out of Sunday's match against West Coast.

Taranto will miss an extended period in arguably the biggest addition to the mounting injury list confronting first-year Tigers coach Adem Yze.

"We are incredibly disappointed for Tim that he will miss some football, but we know the professional he is," Richmond football performance boss Tim Livingstone said on Friday.

"He will keep himself fit and strong and return as quickly as he can.

"It was an unlucky incident right at the end of (Friday's) session.

"He will have it operated on immediately, and we will see where everything is at after that."

Taranto, 26, had not missed a game since arriving at Richmond from Greater Western Sydney ahead of the 2023 season.

News of his injury came just hours after Richmond confirmed fellow midfielder Jack Ross would miss about eight weeks with a stress fracture to his foot.

Ross, 23, has been on the fringes at Richmond and was the substitute in round one, but played the Tigers' past four games in the midfield, averaging 23.5 disposals per match.

He will be replaced by Liam Baker, who returns from suspension against the Eagles at Optus Stadium.

"Unfortunately for Rossy they've found a bit of a stress fracture in his foot, or his toe, and he'll go in for surgery," Yze said.

"He was in really good form, he started to get some continuity as a midfielder for us, and he had an interrupted season last year as well.

"We'll wrap our arms around him and help him through it."

Yze has already had to deal with losing Josh Gibcus for the season, Tom Lynch (hamstring) for up to three months, and Noah Balta (knee) for about six weeks.

Dion Prestia and Dylan Grimes have also been sidelined early in the season as Richmond have stuttered to a 1-4 start.

"It's not about me, you just feel for the players that are unavailable," Yze said.

"Irrelevant of where we sit and how we're going win-loss, we just want to see the kids play.

"So when you see some of your players walking around injured, frustrated, flat - that's worse than win-loss."

Lynch was back at Punt Road on Friday after his surgery, and Yze confirmed the player was in good spirits and would soon return to running.

Balta is out of a knee brace and was walking laps at training.

Rumours of a mid-season retirement for Dustin Martin had been circling over the past two weeks, but have been quashed.

"We don't deal with rumours and things like that," Yze said.

"Our responsibility is to make sure Dusty's happy, and I've said that from day one.

"We want an environment that can allow him to enjoy his footy, enjoy coming into the club every day and hopefully prolong his career.

"Those sorts of (rumours) are external, we don't really worry about them.

"He came in and played like Dusty (against St Kilda in round four), and that was the main thing."

Australian Associated Press