Richmond forward Jack Higgins won’t play again this AFL season because of bleeding on the brain, his coach Damien Hardwick says.

But Higgins, who is due to be discharged from hospital on Thursday, is expected to return to action next year.

The 20-year-old has had an abnormality since birth in which blood vessels in the brain bleed.

“He has got a group of blood vessels that aren’t strong and they naturally bleed,” Hardwick told reporters on Thursday.

“Obviously he has had a bigger bleed which has caused the issue.

“So he won’t play again this year.

“In four-to-six weeks he will have another scan once the blood has subsided, then he will probably have a procedure to rectify the results.”

Hardwick said the abnormality was known to be a chance of flaring between the ages of 10 and 30.

“He will play footy again, which is really exciting for us and great for Jack,” he said.

“We’re just rapt, and our medicos did a terrific job of detecting and sending him in for scans.

“So now we sort of know the solution, we have just got to be patient and wait until that occurs.”

Higgins had spent the past two nights in hospital after initially complaining of headaches.

He has not been in Richmond’s AFL team since round 13 but played in the Tigers’ state-league side last Sunday.

The club was uncertain whether the brain bleed was caused by any incident in Sunday’s game.