The Kahibah 20-year-old strained a hamstring during the warm-up in the last game before Christmas and is undergoing physiotherapy in an attempt to comeback at some stage in the new year.

It was a setback for the right-handed batsman, who had returned this season having missed the most part of 2019-2020 following surgery to repair damaged meniscus in his knee.

And the day after helping the Magpies claim a maiden T20 Summer Bash title in February last year, Richardson travelled to Sydney to have a bone tumor removed from his ankle.

"Hopefully I can put it all behind me and get back into it again during the second half of the season," he said.

Richardson, who recently switched from studying primary education at University to working in disability support at Wallsend, is now well across the road to recovery.

Overall he has described it as a "frustrating" period, but "enjoyed" being back in a full-time capacity with Charlestown this summer.

Adding to the experience in 2020-21 has been playing first grade alongside his younger brother Jacob at their junior club.

"We started playing super 8s in 2008 even though he was a year younger and then we played all of our juniors together until under 18s," Richardson said.

"But we'd never really played grade together before so to play firsts with my brother this year has been really good and I've really enjoyed it."

Richardson, whose father Geoff was named the first life member of Charlestown's junior club in 2016, has also found himself behind the stumps as wicketkeeper at various stages with regular Magpies gloveman Matthew Bench hampered by hip issues. He has seven catches next to his name so far, including four and a stumping in one innings last month.

"It's definitely not my preferred position but I've been happy to help out for a few rounds," he said.

"We were lucky in that last game when I got injured because Benchy had come back, otherwise I'm not sure what we would have done."

Richardson has got a couple of 20-plus starts with the bat and posted a half-century in the under-21 competition, but is searching for a bit more "consistency".

After what has been an "up and down start" to this campaign - featuring three wins, two losses and three wash outs - he hopes Charlestown can "string a few wins together" and "make a push for the semis".

The seventh-placed Magpies, just three points outside the top four, resume against Stockton at Lynn Oval on January 9 and 16.

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