Richmond and Dustin Martin needed a lot more than a badly-corked thigh for the AFL star not to play in the preliminary final loss to Collingwood.
Martin was clearly below his best in Friday night's shock 39-point loss.
It followed a week of intrigue about Martin's fitness, with coach Damien Hardwick eventually confirming the corked thigh in his pre-game media conference.
After the match, Hardwick had no doubts about playing the Brownlow Medallist.
"Look, he didn't train for a week and a half, but once you cross that line, you cross the line," Hardwick said.
"He was never a chance to miss - Dustin would have killed me if I had said 'you're not playing this week'.
"He was always going to play."
Martin finished with 19 possessions, three marks and no goals, well off his usual output.
"Did he have his best night? No he didn't," Hardwick said.
"But we had a fair majority of our side in a similar type of boat."
Richmond David Asbbury also had a quiet night after he had to go to hospital during the week and have an intravenous drip because of illness.
"He was pretty crook on the Thursday, went into Epworth (Hospital) to get a drip inserted just to get some fluid back into his body," Hardwick said.
"Like a lot of our backs, he tried his best, it just wasn't his day."
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