St Kilda star Nick Riewoldt has avoided a serious knee injury and could only miss a couple of weeks, according to Saints GM Football Performance Jamie Cox.
Riewoldt was carted off Etihad Stadium in the dying minutes of Saturday night’s disappointing 30-point loss to Melbourne after he hyperextended his right knee.
While Riewoldt is set to miss at least this weekend's trip to Perth to face West Coast and the clash with Collingwood the week after, it could have been much worse for the 320-game champion.
“He'll still have some time off, but hopefully only a week or two now,” Cox told Melbourne radio station RSN on Monday morning.
“Our doctors are reasonably positive about trying to get him up and about and even running lightly by the end of this week.
“Hopefully this is something he can manage and get up and about pretty quickly.”
Budding key forward Paddy McCartin could return to the senior side this weekend after being a late withdrawal against the Demons due to hamstring tightness.
The Saints chose to play the 20-year-old in Sandringham’s practice match against Port Melbourne on Sunday, where they could monitor his workload closely. McCartin performed strongly, booting three first half goals to put his hand up for an immediate recall.
“He was actually passed medically fit, which is our doctors' job, and then it becomes ‘Richo's’ job to determine whether or not he was fit to perform at AFL level and get through a full game,” Cox said.
“The call was made that we were not prepared to take that risk so at this stage of the year let's just park him for the moment and get him ready for this week.”
