Richmond superstar Matthew Richardson needed a pain-killing injection in his knee to play in Saturday night's Dreamtime clash against Essendon, coach Terry Wallace revealed on Tuesday.

Wallace said Richardson, who was one of the Tigers' best players in the 38-point win over the Bombers at the MCG, played under duress after sustaining a jarred knee in the previous week's match against Geelong.

But Richardson, 33, did no further damage to the knee and is not in doubt for Sunday's clash with Sydney at the SCG - the venue where he suffered a season-ending knee injury back in 1995.

"He struggled last week - he had a problem with his knee, for the whole week, virtually didn't train for the week," Wallace said.

"He's certainly better this week, leading into this week's game.

"Even on the weekend, just prior to when the boys were doing the warm-up before the match, he had to sneak up the race and get another injection into his knee.

"So he's playing under a bit of sufferance but it certainly has settled down as they do and he certainly will be better served coming into this week's game."

On the back of career-best form in the last two months, Richardson has come in from $401 to $8 for the Brownlow Medal.

And team-mate Nathan Foley admitted stories about Richardson's chances for the Brownlow had been plastered around the walls of the club.

"I think he's a little bit sick of all the talk to be honest," Wallace said.

"We're in a situation where we've only won three games of footy.

"You talk about trying to get the three votes, two votes in those games, we won't have as much opportunity as others to poll in those games.

"Maybe the run home will be a little kinder to us."

The Tigers have lost six of their last eight matches against Sydney at the SCG but Wallace said past history would count for nothing.

And after taking it up to the then three undefeated sides - the Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn and Geelong - earlier this year, Wallace said his players were again up for the challenge against the ultra-consistent Swans.

"We like testing ourselves in these sort of games at the moment, that's what it's about," Wallace said.

"If you are going to improve and get yourself up in a position where you're vying for the eight, whether that be this year or in the next 12 months, you want to be testing yourselves out against those sides and find out exactly what is stacking up and what's not for you as a footy team."

With the Tigers sitting in 11th and a game and a half outside the eight, Wallace said making the finals was not being talked about.

"We're just working at the moment on continued improvement and building ourselves as a footy team and who knows," he said.

"A couple of those close losses early in the season might come to bite us later in the year but they're done now.

"All we could be doing is working on a weekly basis of playing the best football we possibly can."

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