Richmond’s ironman Brett Deledio will miss his first AFL match in seven years.

Deledio has an ankle injury and was left out of their team for Saturday’s match against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.

The Tigers also lost ruckman Shaun Hampson with a knee injury and dropped Nathan Foley.

Reigning club best and fairest winner Daniel Jackson will play his first senior game of the year, while ruckman Orren Stephenson will take Hampson’s place.

Mature-age recruit Nathan Gordon, who played two games for Sydney and came to the Tigers via SANFL side North Adelaide, will make his Richmond debut.

Deledio had the league’s longest active consecutive-games streak of 140, going back to round 18 in 2007.

The two-time club best and fairest winner and All-Australian has missed only four games since his 2005 debut and has played 197 senior matches.

“I’m a little bit ginger at the moment but not to worry, I might spend a week on the sidelines,” Deledio told Triple M on Thursday afternoon.

“It’s sore and it’s not allowing me to play the way I’d like to.

“You don’t want to be missing at the business end, so if I have to miss one it’ll have to be this time of year I suppose.”

Deledio dominated in the first term of last Thursday night’s nailbiting win over Carlton, but was noticeably quiet for the rest of the game after Andrejs Everitt was moved onto him.

Coach Damien Hardwick revealed at his weekly news conference that an injury had hampered Deledio during the match.

“‘Lids’ played hurt – he was really impressive for a guy who I didn’t think was going to finish the game,” Hardwick said.

“He’s a wait and see – we’ll see how he trains today, if he trains at all.

“He’s an important player, so we’ll give him up at the last minute to see how he goes.”

He added the Tigers would leave it up to the star utility to make the call on Saturday’s game.

“He’s one of those guys – he’ll be able to tell me whether he’s right or not to go,” Hardwick said.

“I think he’s missed one game since I’ve been here.

“He has that quick-healing blood, as he says.”

The Tigers are also without No.1 defender Alex Rance, who missed the Carlton win after he fell off his bike and broke a bone in his foot.

“It’s one of those things – he was doing active recovery and for whatever reason he falls off awkwardly and hurts himself.

But reigning club best and fairest winner Daniel Jackson will play his first senior game this year.

Jackson has had two games in the VFL after recovering from a pre-season injury.

In Jackson’s absence, Port Adelaide recruit Matt Thomas has impressed as an inside midfielder.

“Now we get two battering rams in there, which is always handy,” Hardwick said.