A RECURRING back injury means star St Kilda defender Jake Carlisle is no better than a 50-50 chance of being fit for the club's season opener against Gold Coast in less than a month.
He's not the only big-name Saint in doubt for round one, with prized recruit Dan Hannebery rebuilding his body as he deals with hamstring 'awareness'.
Carlisle, 27, has been very limited this preparation. He was managed upon his return to pre-season and suffered a flare-up before Christmas.
"It's just been a little bit slow. We've had a couple of false starts where he's got going again and it looks like he's on the right track, and then he's just flared up again," Richardson told AFL.com.au.
"He's still a chance to play (round one). Long-term, there's no issue. He's probably 50-50 (to face the Suns) at best I reckon now."
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Hannebery is dealing with hamstring 'awareness' that afflicts the 28-year-old when he builds his training loads up and Richardson said there was no rush with the triple All Australian.
"What's become really clear, and we knew this to be the case, is that in his two years leading into this year, he just hasn't been able to get the consistency of training, and that's probably caught up with him a little bit," Richardson said.
"As he's really started to ramp up the tempo, that is, getting closer to games, his body's just said 'no, no, I just need to get some more miles in'.
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"The conditioning staff have told us as a coaching group 'this is what needs to happen. We need to go back and do a bit of a rebuild'."
"He's still a chance to be ready for round one but we're not really thinking that. We're just thinking 'let's get him right'. If it is that he's right to go round one, then brilliant. If not, that's OK."
Second-year backman Oscar Clavarino suffered a right ankle syndesmosis sprain in last Saturday's intraclub at RSEA Park and will miss up to eight weeks.
"He was certainly in the mix for senior selection early but that's OK, that's footy," Richardson said.
It leaves the club's tall defensive stocks looking bare for the early season, with Nathan Brown missing round one through suspension.
Richardson isn't dismayed though. Logan Austin has returned from a left shoulder injury while regular forward Josh Battle has trained down back and shown positive signs.
"He's going well, Josh. He's an incredibly impressive athlete, reads the play well, he's a really good user of the footy, so we think as that higher defender, he's doing a really good job there," Richardson said.
"It's great to have 'Robbo' (Dylan Roberton) back. We think our back six is much more about system than individuals.
"We went back to being a bit more about needing individuals to be really strong last year. The previous couple of years, we were much more of a system defence."
