Still recovering from a nasty chest infection, Terry Wallace will take his place in the coach's box for the Tigers' critical clash against Essendon this weekend, but the man himself wasn't prepared to confirm as much to the media on Friday.
After the club initially said he would be available for a chat at Punt Road at midday following a team meeting, Wallace made a quick getaway in his car with the windows wound up, ignoring questions from waiting journalists.
Earlier in the day, his lieutenant Brian Royal was more accommodating in verifying that he will be fit to take the Tigers' coaching reins on Saturday.
"Terry's fine to coach, Terry's again spent the night in hospital last night just to continue the medication but he'll definitely coach," Royal said of Wallace, who was admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure during the week.
Royal revealed that there was never really any doubt over Wallace's availability for the match with the Bombers at the MCG despite concerns during the week that he wouldn't be able to front up.
"I don't think it (Wallace missing Saturday's game) ever got that close but the thing that you can't do is never discount these viruses and infections," Royal pointed out.
"And I guess that the precautionary measure of going into hospital and making sure he gets the right medication has probably allowed him to get better a little bit quicker."
Royal said Wallace, who briefly left hospital on Thursday for a team meeting at Richmond headquarters to reassure players and officials that preparations for this week's clash were not affected by his absence, isn't risking anything by coaching so soon after being treated in hospital.
"Probably what it is, it's just a really bad cold and the plane flight and, obviously, the interstate trip (to Perth last round when Richmond played West Coast at Subiaco) probably brought it (the infection) on a lot quicker," explained Royal.
"I think he'll be fine ... probably some of the harder things is climbing the 90 stairs to get up to the coach's box at the MCG so there's a lift and we'll put a few things in place which will allow Terry to get down on the ground."
"If it comes to the crunch throughout the course of the game where I've got to speak to the players at the breaks, we can work that out as the game goes on."
And Royal explained how Wallace was able to prepare for the season-defining encounter with Essendon despite being laid up in hospital since Wednesday.
"We have a fairly thorough opposition analysis and we've given him a lot of information so he can still prepare as normal," Royal said.
"I guess it's just been up to the other coaches to make sure the day-to-day runnings of the footy club works like clockwork and again that's our responsibility to make sure we cover off anything that Terry can't from his hospital bed."