Richmond have been dealt a cruel blow with much-loved forward Mykelti Lefau set for another stint on the sidelines.

Lefau returned to the senior side for Sunday’s clash against Adelaide after missing 12 months with an ACL tear.

It was his first AFL match in 393 days.

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But disaster struck in the second quarter when he was subbed out with a calf injury.

Scans have since confirmed he will be out for 4-6 weeks, as revealed by 7NEWS reporter Xander McGuire.

Coach Adem Yze said the blow played a big part in the Tigers’ 68-point loss to Adelaide.

“Mykelti going out of the game is almost the perfect storm. We lost a guy that’s going to give us a contest forward of the ball, we then had to move Noah (Balta) forward, which I thought he did really well,” Yze said.

“It was really disappointing, not only for today, but for the body of work (Lefau’s) put in over the last month to put himself in a position to pretty much get straight back in.

“It showed how important he is to us in that aerial battle, when he did go out of the game. We did miss him.”

Lefau was playing his first senior game since rupturing his ACL against Geelong in Round 12 last year.

The New Zealander joined the Tigers as a pre-season rookie selection in 2024 and made his senior debut a month later.

He immediately impressed with his physicality and willingness to contest.

Lefau kicked 14 goals in 10 games before going down the serious knee injury.

With eight rounds left in the season, there remains hope the 27-year-old will return to the field.

Richmond face another tough test this week with a daunting trip down the highway to take on Geelong.

And they will be without spearhead Tom Lynch, who is facing a suspension for his high shot on Jordon Butts.

“We’ll be looking always to the future, but at the same time, right now we expect to put on a performance that our Tiger Army are proud of. The last couple of weeks, that hasn’t been the case. We need to address that, train hard, go down to Geelong and do what we need to do,” he said.

“The spirit is going to get dented when we feel like we’re playing the right way and our execution at our front end is not as good as theirs. That’s OK, we can work on that, we can train that and build into that.

“I’d be more worried if our spirit, our energy and our system went out of whack and our players didn’t look like they cared. That’s something we won’t tolerate.”