ESSENDON'S injury crisis deepened on Saturday night with fears star midfielder Nic Martin has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and Will Setterfield has suffered a serious foot injury in the Bombers' shock loss to a rebuilding Richmond.

The club will be sweating on scans for the important duo, with coach Brad Scott admitting the club's burgeoning injury toll was "flattening".

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Martin was subbed out of the match early in the first quarter after landing awkwardly on the astro turf following a heavy bump from Tiger Rhyan Mansell over the boundary line.

The 24-year-old appeared devastated in the rooms following the incident and spent the rest of the match on the bench. He emerged at the three-quarter time huddle on crutches, his right knee heavily iced.

Meanwhile, Setterfield watched the final quarter from the bench with an ice pack strapped to his foot.

"I can't think of a situation like this in my time in footy," Scott said.

"Nic Martin has almost certainly done his ACL, that just sends a shiver down everyone's spine at quarter-time when that word ripples out.

"And (Will) Setterfield, after losing (Jye) Caldwell to surgery last week, Setterfield looks like he's got a pretty serious foot injury as well.

"It's a tough situation but we just have to find our way through it."

It's the latest blow in a horror run of injuries for Essendon, which has already blooded 12 debutants this season with its playing list decimated by injury.

Six players have already been ruled out for the remainder of the season, with Sam Draper (Achilles), Jye Caldwell (ankle), Zach Reid (hamstring), Nick Bryan, Tom Edwards and Lewis Hayes (all ACL injuries) out of action. 

Another six players are on the Bombers' injury list with varying timelines for their return.

"We're trying to be positive and put on a brave face which is what you need to do as a leader, but it's getting hard to deny it's not flattening what's happening at the moment," Scott said.

"The ripple effect is it has so many challenges, it's not just the players that aren't there, it's the players that come in - they've never played together and it ends up looking like, not a lack of effort, but a complete lack of synergy and connection.

"Rookie players making rookie errors which is understandable.

"The most important thing for us is to just fight our way through it and deal with the circumstances that are in front of us at the moment and not try to dwell on what we haven't got and focus more on the privilege of playing AFL footy."

In arguably the lowest-quality contest of the season, both sides were plagued by skill errors and consistently failed to find targets in the forward line.

Twelve straight behinds between quarter-time and the 20-minute mark of the third quarter were kicked before Bomber Archer May finally converted to break a 53-minute goal drought through the middle of the match. 

It wasn't pretty, but it was a win nonetheless - the Tigers' fourth of the season - and that's all that matters for a side where victories have been at a premium.

"It wasn't the prettiest game, but when we're sitting where we are and what we're going through on our build, we'll take these wins and celebrate them because they're really important for our group," Richmond coach Adem Yze said.

"While we're trying to climb our way back up the ladder, these situations and moments are very, very good for our younger boys.

"Our leaders led the way but our young boys gave some real spark and energy.

"When we sit in a room and we look at the game we've got split personalities. Our older boys call it an ugly game, our younger boys have got a massive smile on their face and when they haven't won too often, they're just enjoying the ride and that's where our group's at.

"As coaching staff and as a footy club we want to enjoy these wins and make sure the boys do as well."