Dustin Martin has produced a power of training ahead of his AFL return

Collingwood should prepare for the full Dustin Martin experience on Saturday with the Richmond star primed to explode on his return to football at the MCG.

Martin hasn’t played since taking personal leave following the Tigers Round 1 loss to Carlton, to deal with the death of his father.

But the triple Norm Smith medallist made an unannounced return to training last weekend and has now powered through so much work he’s certain to make his comeback against the Magpies on Saturday.

Richmond’s physical performance manager Peter Burge said Martin had completed a “huge workload” to bring himself back up to AFL speed and is set to boost a Tigers line-up in form following a 109-point thumping of West Coast last weekend.

“Dustin’s been training with us now for a week and a half,” Burge said.

“He completed quite a big session out here with the other guys who didn’t have a game last week and he did a huge workload in terms of total kilometres, some intensity, some handball games, match simulation type training.

“He’s looking really good to potentially be available for selection this week.

“We’ve got another main session on Thursday and all being great in that, then I’d anticipate he would be up for selection.”

But teammate Dion Prestia might struggle to come up for Saturday’s clash after being subbed out of the win over the Eagles with ankle, Achilles and calf issues.

Prestia was also ill and would need to complete the main training session on Thursday to be a chance of taking on Collingwood. a

“He’s actually crook today (Tuesday), he’s at home, so we haven’t had a chance to look at him on the track,” Burge said.

“We have our main training session this week on Thursday so we’ll assess him then to see where he’s at, see if he can do some running or participate in any skill work, and we’ll have an update after training on Thursday.”

Richmond are sitting in ninth spot with a 3-4 record, just below the Magpies who have won one more match through the opening seven rounds.