Wangaratta's Brad Melville out for 12 months after rupturing ACL in VFL clash for Richmond

Melville suffered the injury in the first quarter of Richmond's VFL clash against Collingwood at Punt Road Oval and scans on Monday night confirmed his worst fears.

The injury has been compounded by the fact Wangaratta is in contention for the Ovens and Murray premiership and that Melville is also a talented cricketer, which means he won't be able to take the field in Melbourne's premier competition during the summer.

The 22-year-old has returned home to Wangaratta to be around his family and close friends before he heads back to Melbourne to have surgery at the end of the month.

"It happened within the first five minutes, probably the second contest I was involved in," he said.

"I went to change direction to get away from a tackle and my knee sort of rolled in.

"I heard a bit of a pop, I didn't think it was anything too severe because I was able to jog off.

"I went around the back of the stoppage and felt okay, but every time I went to change direction after that, my knee just wanted to keep rolling in.

"When I came off, the doctors were pretty quick to get ice on it and do their tests on it.

"They let me know pretty quickly what they thought it was."

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Melville said he's had a fortunate run with injury up until this point with a broken collarbone his biggest setback.

"It's just unfortunate, but there's not too much I can do about it," he added.

"They're (Richmond) not too worried about getting surgery done straight away, they'll wait until the swelling has gone down and will hopefully get it done in the next couple of weeks.

"It doesn't add any further time to the rehab process.

"They (Richmond) have been amazing. I couldn't have asked for any more support really.

"They were pretty quick to contact my parents to make sure I've got all the support I need.

"They said they'll help me through all the rehab and get me back in the gym as soon as possible, so I'm in great hands down there.

"I suppose if there's any silver lining, I'm in the best hands there are."

Melville will touch base with the Tigers over the weekend to work out a plan for the start of his rehab.

He made eight VFL appearances for Richmond this season along with one game for Wangaratta.

The Pies face Albury in a top-two showdown at Norm Minns Oval on Saturday.

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