INJURY-CURSED St Kilda midfielder Nathan Freeman will return in the VFL reserves this weekend, while young star Jack Billings is expected to prove his fitness to play against Adelaide on Sunday.

St Kilda coach Alan Richardson told reporters Freeman would play for Sandringham in the VFL development league on Saturday against Coburg, having last played on May 14.

Richardson also said Jimmy Webster would be available for the Crows clash at Adelaide Oval after missing last round's win over Fremantle with illness, while Billings should prove his fitness at training after injuring his ankle in round nine against Essendon.

"It wasn't severe. He was almost right to play (last round)," Richardson said of Billings' injury.

"We expect him to get through and we'll wait for match committee and see what happens." 

Billings trained with Saints' main group on Thursday, along with Webster and Freeman, and appeared to move without any discomfort.

Freeman has played just two VFL development games since crossing from Collingwood in last year's trade period, unable to completely shake the hamstring troubles that dogged him in his two seasons at the Holden Centre.

The former Magpie made an impressive return on April 9, racking up 46 possessions in three quarters for Sandringham's reserves team, but then suffered another niggle that sidelined him for more than a month.

Richardson said Freeman had been "good now" for the past five or six weeks, but the Saints would continue to take things slowly with him.

"The plan is a slow one. It's certainly got enormous science, expertise and method behind the plan," the Saints coach said on Thursday.

"We just continue to increase his speed and his load, and he'll come in and play reserves at VFL level and then he'll build up from there.

"He's going well."

Richardson said Freeman was staying positive and had coped remarkably well with the setbacks he'd had since crossing to the Saints.

"He's had a couple of mishaps, we certainly won't pretend that hasn't happened, but we knew that would happen. When you don't play footy for two years, it's unlikely you're going to come in and just hit the ground running and not have interruptions," Richardson said.

"So that's happened, he's coped with it really well. He's mentally quite an impressive person, he's a very resilient young man.

"He's got a lot of inner belief, I think that certainly helps him, and his commitment to his program, to doing everything right from a rehab-recovery perspective, is just outstanding.

"So we're looking forward to him getting some reward and playing some footy."

Adelaide small forward Eddie Betts looms as a danger man for the Saints on Sunday after his outstanding start to 2016 that included five goals against Greater Western Sydney last Saturday night.

Jarryn Geary shapes as a likely opponent for Betts, having held Freo's Hayden Ballantyne goalless last round and performed impressive jobs on Collingwood’s Alex Fasolo, Melbourne’s Jeff Garlett and North Melbourne’s Brent Harvey earlier this season.

Richardson said Betts would be a handful for whoever played on him, but was confident the Saints could find the right match-up.

"Eddie's dangerous, (Charlie) Cameron is dangerous too, both of those boys are reasonably good in the air as well as on the deck, (they're) good runners and good footballers," he said.

"(But) 'Gears' has been in really good form on those sort of guys, (Sean) Dempster's been in good form too."