Acting General Manager of Football David Misson has reassured there won’t be any “undue risks” taken with Max King as the prospect of a potential late-season comeback remains.

King underwent an arthroscope yesterday after subluxing his shoulder in the opening minute of last week’s match against Melbourne, with the subsequent cleanup identifying the injury would not require a full reconstruction.

Instead, the key forward will undergo what is known as a a Latarjet procedure, which - on surgeons’ advice - can be held off as the possibility of a comeback remains on the cards.

King will need to tick off several recovery milestones over this month and next, with a senior return in four to five weeks the best-case scenario should be pass all necessary markers. 

“Max didn’t take long to make the decision to have a crack. The shoulder was feeling good before he went in for the procedure yesterday, but we’re not going to take undue risks with him.

“He’s a critical player to us and Max will be the one who will update us along the way more than anything. It’s a step-progression towards him hopefully playing again.”

While King’s prognosis was the talk of the town, Lyon was focussed purely on this week’s task at hand against Gold Coast, who themselves have received their share of headlines after coach Stuart Dew was sacked on Tuesday morning.

The Saints’ line-up will be confirmed later this evening, however will be forced to make several changes after losing King, Zaine Cordy (concussion), Seb Ross (hamstring) and Jack Billings (thumb) from Saturday’s loss to Melbourne.

Jack Hayes enjoyed a successful return via the VFL last weekend after an injury-riddled year but appears unlikely to come back to senior level this week, while Jack Higgins will miss again as part of ongoing knee management.

Meanwhile, Bradley Hill is expected to slot straight back in after failing a fitness test the session before St Kilda’s match with Melbourne. 

“We’d prefer to have (Max), but guess what, let’s just focus on what we’ve got. Next man in,” Lyon said.

“I think there’s a lot of noise about the Gold Coast. The reality is they played the top-two teams against the competition and bar one quarter against Port, we know they’re extremely talented.

“We know they’ll be on edge, they’ve got a stand-in coach which will probably free them up a little bit mentally, but we’re pretty keen to meet the challenge.

“Our season’s really alive, everyone’s pushing and (the competition) is so even. We took a lot our of last week and we’re clear on what we need to improve upon.

“We’ve been pretty consistent, just had fluctuations within games that have cost us, 15 points here and there.”

Lyon confirmed Tim Membrey was “coming on quick” as part of his knee management program and was training pain-free, while Hunter Clark has thrown his name into the mix after playing three quarters in the VFL alongside Hayes and first-year Saint, Angus McLennan.

“There’s a bit of carnage, but everyone deals with it,” Lyon said.

“We want to be a ‘no excuse’ football club, use no alibi. They’re easy to use, they’re easy to talk about, they’re easy to run up the flagpole, but that’s not the space we live in.”