Cotchin suffered the injury against Port Adelaide in round six and sat out the Tigers' loss to Hawthorn last week.

Coach Damien Hardwick confirmed the three-time best-and-fairest winner would not line up against the Swans on Saturday night at the MCG.

"He hasn't got the tick off from the surgeon as of yet," Hardwick said at Punt Road Oval on Thursday.

"We were hoping he would be available to play but unfortunately the healing process does take a little bit of time so just to be more safe than sorry we're just going to give him that extra week to recover.

"He'll certainly be putting his hand up this week to play but we've got to be confident that when he's out there he can perform his duties as good as he can and we're probably just a little reluctant to put him out there when it's not quite healed to the level that we'd like."

Hardwick also revealed that Ivan Maric would play in the VFL for a second week in a row as the ruckman attempts to regain form.

"He was probably not to the level that he or I would like at this point of time. He's an important player for us, we know what he can bring to our footy club but he's just not in the sort of form that will promote his best football at AFL level at the moment," Hardwick said.

"He knows that, he understands that, we're looking forward to him getting back to his best."

Hardwick said Maric was still feeling the flow-on effects from the back injury which sidelined him for the first month of the season.

"His preparation was put off by it. He's a bit of a workhorse, a Clydesdale. Ivan needs the games under his belt to play to the level that we know he can and he's a warrior by nature and he just hasn't had the workload that he requires," the Richmond boss said.

In better news for the Tigers, dual All-Australian defender Alex Rance will return from a two-game suspension to tackle the competition's most in-form forward - Lance Franklin.

"He (Franklin) has been terrific hasn't he ... they go to him a lot, we are very fortunate we've got a very good player in Alex Rance coming back in to help us combat that," Hardwick said.

"He's an incredible player, Alex, one of the better players I've seen in my time in AFL footy."

Dylan Grimes (hamstring) is a chance of bypassing the VFL and returning to the Tigers' senior line-up this weekend while Reece Conca will play his first reserves game of the year after injuring his hamstring pre-season.

"We could have played him (Grimes) last week at VFL level," Hardwick said.

"He has done the training to come straight back in ... he's prepared to play 100 per cent game time, we've trained him to do that."

Meanwhile, a return date for Chris Yarran remains a mystery as the former Blue continues his rehabilitation from a foot injury.