The 10-12 week recovery period would leave him precious little time to get match-fit before the end of the season, with Richmond struggling at 1-5 and looking set to miss the finals.
The oldest player in the competition has struggled through the last two weeks, suffering a glute injury in the round five clash with North Melbourne, then a flare-up of hamstring tendonitis in Sunday's clash with the Sydney Swans.
The 34-year-old finished third in last year's Brownlow Medal despite struggling through the end of the season with a knee injury.
The injury is similar to the one that kept Essendon spearhead Matthew Lloyd out of most of the 2006 season, although Lloyd tore his off the bone and Richardson only has a partial tear.
Craig Cameron, Richmond's general manager of football, said the extent of the recuperation period required would be known after surgery on Tuesday evening.
"His recovery time will take anywhere between 10 to 12 weeks – we won't really be sure of that until after the operation," he told a media conference on Tuesday.
"While this is disappointing for Matthew, he's got great recuperation powers as he's shown throughout his career, and we expect that he'll be back later this season."
Club doctor Greg Hickey said Richardson's troublesome hamstring tendon was constantly being managed.
"There have been times over the last 12 months when he's been as bad, either following games or in the middle of the week," he said.
"There's been many games where he's been thinking 'Gee, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get out there', and he's managed to do it and then goes out and gets three Brownlow votes.
"He's an incredible guy.
"When someone like that says 'I'm right to go – I'm not great but I'm happy to put my hand up and get out there', well, we've got to give that a lot of respect.
"He's been around and he's played with a million injuries and it's incredible the things that he has played with."
Richardson has played 282 games for the Tigers, winning the Jack Dyer Medal in 2007 and leading the goalkicking 13 times.
Richardson will speak exclusively to afl.com.au tomorrow about his plight.
