Star Richmond forward Tom Lynch is said to be "going really, really well" in his recovery from foot surgery.
However, the Tigers' spearhead remains just one of several stars making strong strides along the rehabilitation route this summer.
Lynch featured on just four occasions for Richmond throughout the 2023 season, with the dual premiership player injuring his foot during the Tigers' Round 4 loss to the Western Bulldogs in early April of last season.
Now less than a fortnight into his return to the training track, the former Sun is said to be progressing well towards his planned return in 2024's Opening Round, albeit with healthy pangs of frustration.
"He's going really, really well. He's had four sessions outside now. Things are progressing as we planned," Richmond's Physical Performance Manager Luke Meehan told Tigers Media.
"It's going to be a little bit of a slow build. Tom's very impatient of course, and we all want to get Tom out there and into the footy drills as soon as possible, but we need to understand that he had a really long period off, he had eight months without running.
"He's going to work his tail off to get back as soon as he can, but we need to be really smart and have Tom available for as long as possible this year."
Elsewhere inside the Tigers' forward arc, the ever-effervescent Shai Bolton is also making moves toward his on-field return following successful off-season surgery on his ankle.
"He hurt his ankle with a minute to go of the Port Adelaide game (Round 24) last year, with a minute to go of the season. The surgery was really successful, it went really well," Meehan added.
"He slowly worked into some training just before Christmas, and since we got back from the break, he's pretty much been in everything. He's looking fantastic."
The welcome reports continue at the other end of the ground, too, with rising key defender Josh Gibcus starting to see plenty of fruit after working hard to shake off a complicated hamstring injury that ruined his 2023 season.
"He's completing about 90 per cent of our drills. There's a couple more things we need to do before we throw him full into training," Meehan said of the former first-round pick.
"In saying that though, he's pretty much doing all of training. It's just one or two drills that we keep him out of.
"He worked so hard in his off-season and went away with physio Anthony Schache, who has also worked really hard with Josh. It's great to see him out there and he's going to continue to build up to practice games."
Lynch, Bolton and Gibcus will have their sights set on returning to action during Richmond's Opening Round date against Gold Coast at Carrara on Saturday, March 9.