Richards was a late withdrawal from last week's win over Essendon with a knee tendon injury.
The ladder-leading Bulldogs have also named ruck-forward Louis Emmett for his AFL debut. Their No.1 ruckman Tim English is out with a knee injury and Arty Jones has a hamstring problem.
Karl Amon and Cam Mackenzie are important recalls for the sixth-placed Hawks, who play the Bulldogs on Saturday night at Adelaide Oval.
Facing a club-record streak of 18 losses, Essendon made four changes for Saturday's early Adelaide Oval match against in-form Melbourne.
Sullivan Robey will make his AFL debut and top defender Jordan Ridley will return, along with key forward Nate Caddy and midfielder Elijah Tsatas. Archie Perkins and Matt Guelfi lead the omissions.
Melbourne will bring back forward Bayley Fritsch, who has recovered from a foot injury.
"When you have a pretty solid performance, you want to reward that and maintain that selection integrity, which is important," coach Steven King said in the wake of the Demons' excellent win over Gold Coast.
"But in saying that, Bayley Fritsch is a key player for us so he'll force his way in.
"That's a great problem as a coach to have, so we'll have to make a hard decision."
Coming off that bad loss to the Demons, Gold Coast kept Christian Petracca out for another week to make sure he recovers from his hamstring injury.
They will play Sydney on Saturday at Norwood Oval and the Swans surprised by leaving out defender Lewis Melican.
Petracca rang coach Damien Hardwick on Wednesday to lobby for a recall.
"He's very, very forthright in wanting to play and that's what great players do ... sometimes a coach has got to save them a bit from themselves," Hardwick said.
"But, you know, I obviously I'm a little bit conservative with these things."
North Melbourne named former Melbourne player Charlie Spargo for his club debut, in the Saturday Barossa game against Brisbane.
The Lions have regained co-captains Harris Andrews and Hugh McCluggage.
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