St Kilda has defender recalling star forward Max King despite failing to finish Sunday's game against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium with yet another injury setback.
King made his long-awaited AFL return after 757 days, but was removed from the clash with hamstring tightness in the third quarter. He didn't return to the bench and wasn't spotted in the club's team song after the 39-point victory.
The key forward had been on an intense training program in the lead-up to the clash, with Saints coach Ross Lyon backing the high-performance staff.
"I don't even know what the outcome is, so how can it be an error before there's an outcome?" Lyon said.
"But we stand by our decision to play (him). We have high performance experts ... we have conditioning, we're really quite confident.
"Hindsight's 20-20, isn't it? You can't be timid souls sitting in the sidelines. We're in the arena making decisions."
The Saints will not jump at shadows and await the results of scans to identify the severity of the injury.
"It's about resilience and coming again," Lyon said.
"He's run down an AFL race, feels good, had a start, get a feel for how hard it is, and rehab a potential soft tissue injury.
"I haven't seen Max King; I was coaching, he wasn't in the rooms, he wasn't in the song.
"When we get the results, we'll update it. There's no angst.
"We've got to stand by the decision because we made it."
King finished the day with 30 per cent game time, two disposals and one mark.
The win over North Melbourne put St Kilda back inside the top 10, pipping Carlton only by percentage.
The Saints' final month of the year has them perfectly placed for a Wildcard Round tilt, facing Sydney (home) before clashes against the Blues, Richmond and Gold Coast.
