BOTH Essendon and Richmond will be sweating on scans for a number of important players, as Dreamtime at the 'G turned into a nightmare on the injury front.

The Bombers' injury crisis worsened with Kyle Langford set for a stint on the sidelines with a quad issue, while the injury-prone Zach Reid was removed from the game with hamstring awareness.

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"Zach Reid, we're not even sure it's an injury. But when the medical staff says 'Reidy can almost sense something with his hamstring, he feels something', we just have no choice at this stage of his career with his injury history, we just took him off and ruled him out," Essendon coach Brad Scott said.

"Fingers crossed with that one, but we won't be able to update or give you a conclusive answer until we've had scans.

"Probably the same with Langford in the case of scans, but when you feel your quad kicking, especially kicking from outside 50, it's hard to believe he doesn't have a quad strain. More optimistic with Reid, but concern for Langford."

As reported by AFL.com.au, Essendon tall Nik Cox is dealing with ongoing concussion symptoms, and was removed from all levels of football this week.

"It's so disappointing and frustrating and challenging for him. But I said to him pre-game in the rooms, football is really important, we play in this unbelievable competition, but there are things that are more important," Scott said.

"We'll just give Nik all the time he needs. We're hopeful he'll get back soon, but we won't compromise his health. The game's taken great strides forward in that regard. I was told during the week there's been a number of players forced into retirement by concussion – is that a bad thing? Well, 20 years ago, that didn't happen.

"We put players at risk for the rest of their lives, and it's actually a positive from my point of view, because we're identifying it and looking after the players better than we ever have."

In the other changerooms, Richmond coach Adem Yze was counting the cost of the 23-point loss, with No.1 pick Sam Lalor pulling up sore, and Thomson Dow suffering a dislocated patella.

Skipper Toby Nankervis is likely to return for next week's clash with Greater Western Sydney after being managed.

"Sammy Lalor, unfortunately we think it's a slight hammy. I'm not sure how bad it is, he's obviously most likely going to miss next week," Yze said.

"Thomson Dow's kneecap slipped out. He said he's had it before, so depending on what sort of damage that does – he's most likely going to miss as well. I'm not sure if he missed a game (last time), but hopefully, because he's been in really good form.

"[Nankervis] has been dealing with a knee issue for the last few weeks, so we had to break the cycle. A five-day break, it just made sense. The risk was if we just kept pushing him through, he'd miss more than just one game. We're hoping this would do that, and he'll just miss one, get back in for the next couple of weeks and look to the bye.

"The hardest thing with the captain, is telling him this is the best scenario to go through, when 'Lynchy' (Tom Lynch) and Noah Balta aren't playing. You could see he was more worried about our leadership out there."

The Tigers had stuck with the Bombers for the first half of the game, but the more experienced Essendon wrestled back control in slippery conditions as the game hit the final straight.

"We were quite happy with the way we started, our first half was really competitive. Thought we probably could have been further in front at half time than behind, but we just didn't finish and execute and maximise our opportunities," Yze said.

"The weight of numbers in the second half – we got smashed in inside 50s, time in forward half, clearances were diabolical.

"And that's okay. We had a really young side in, we just spoke about it post-game – a lot of their A-graders played really well, like their execution, (Zach) Merrett, (Nic) Martin, (Andrew) McGrath, they all had over 30 possessions, wet conditions, and their talent shone through. But they've all played over 150 games. Our front end had (Luke) Trainor, (Sam) Lalor, (Jonty) Faull, (Tom) Sims, who have played 10 games of footy each."