RICHMOND has been in contact with the AFL to clarify the requirements around potential top-up players, as the club's seemingly never-ending injury crisis deepens.

Campbell Gray has "tweaked" his hamstring in the 36-point loss to Euro-Yroke and will require scans, while 19-year-old Sam Cumming copped a late corkie to his quad and is facing a five-day turnaround to recover before Friday night's Dreamtime at the 'G.

SAINTS V TIGERS Full match details and stats

Further compounding matters is Nick Vlastuin's dangerous slinging tackle on Ryan Byrnes in the fourth term. The Saint bounced up and was able to take his free kick, and played out the match, but the double-action tackle is sure to come under MRO scrutiny, particularly given the "potential to cause injury" nature of the incident.

Mykelti Lefau will be available to face the Bombers after a game off to help manage his return from a torn ACL, while Kaleb Smith and Samson Ryan are the club's only two remaining fit players. 

Jasper Alger (knee) is a chance to make a return a week ahead of schedule, while Tom Sims is likely to be restricted to managed minutes, given his lengthy rehab from both elbow and foot surgery.

Coach Adem Yze said footy boss Tim Livingstone had followed up with the AFL around requirements for top-ups, 

"[Gray] has tweaked his hammy, I don't know how bad that is, he'll get scans tomorrow. Sammy Cumming is a beauty, he copped a corkie and wanted to get back out there, he's such a tough kid," Yze said.

"We made the decision yesterday with our VFL (team), Samson Ryan didn't play, and Kaleb Smith would have played, but we kept him out of that game. We've got a five-day break going into the Essendon game, so we had to manage. We'll give them a training session.

"We had to have those discussions (having 26 fit players) around this game, really. We felt like this was the game that was more at risk with that. 'Livo' got on the phone with the AFL just in case there was an outbreak with gastro, we couldn't put – Kaleb Smith wasn't realistically available for AFL, he was managed minutes (off a groin injury). 

"We just had to make sure we were doing the right thing and what the process is around it. We know what that process is, but we shouldn't have to go down that path, based on the fact we should have a few more available next week. We didn't go that far (of identifying VFL players), just about what is the process, how does it look if we needed to go to it, if there's a 1 per cent chance, what does that look like."

Yze labelled the first term of the Tigers' loss as "diabolical", which saw his side trail by 21 points after conceding the first four goals.

"It's a little bit similar to last week – we played three okay quarters and just got smashed in one. The first quarter was just diabolical. To only get three inside 50s to 21 or 22, contested possession – which is a strength of ours – to go down in that -18, it just wasn't up to AFL standard," he said.

"Our boys knew that. We spoke about it at quarter-time and the response was positive. We had a choice to make, and we expect to do the jumper proud every week. From quarter-time onwards, we did. 

"Contest went up, we gave our forwards some opportunity and we showed some fight. That was the pleasing part of it, but the first quarter just wasn't good enough. We all know that, and we've got to get better."

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon was pleased his side got the four points and through the match relatively unscathed. 

"I thought it was pretty solid. We jumped out of the blocks, which we wanted to do, we played the way we wanted to play. Time in front half, lots of forward entries," Lyon said. 

"Our young midfield was strong – [Richmond have] got a few different strengths, we know they have their injuries, but Vlastuin, (Nathan) Broad and (Jayden) Short are triple-premiership backs and two of them are roll-off defenders. (Tim) Taranto and (Jacob) Hopper are high-level 'getters' and (Jack) Ross has been strong. 

"Like I said last week, with (Hugo) Garcia, our young midfield was building out, and they got it done in there, I think we had 63 entries, so that was really pleasing. 

"We scored at the right rates, they just took some opportunities out of centre-square bounce and a couple of other things we'll look at, if we could have been a bit tighter there, it would have been a more significant win."

Lyon said Jack Higgins' continual treatment throughout the game was due to grass burn and subsequent irritated skin, rather than an injury concern.