Gardiner will miss this week’s clash with North Melbourne after straining his hamstring in Sunday’s win over Port Adelaide.
Ben McEvoy starred for the Saints last week with 18 hit-outs and two goals and Lyon said he was considering his support options to tackle North Melbourne duo Hamish McIntosh and Todd Goldstein.
“The obvious one is do we ruck (Justin) Koschitzke and McEvoy and share that with (Jason) Blake like we did last week or do we bring the other runner in?” Lyon said.
“I know Leigh Matthews wrote an insightful article on the AFL website that maybe we could do with the one (genuine) ruckman and share the workload between Koschitzke and Blake. [We could also] bring the extra runner in which would maybe open it up for a (David) Armitage type or Alistair Smith, who’s been quite good in the seconds.”
Lyon said having Steven King available would be a huge boost to the ruck stocks. The former Geelong captain hasn’t played at senior level since round seven as he has battled a series of injury concerns and a lack of opportunity with Gardiner and McEvoy ahead of him.
The Saints coach said King was in contention for this week despite missing the past three weeks of VFL with a hamstring injury.
“He’s really hopeful so if he can get through it would be nice. You can just see [how] Hawthorn’s ruck stocks disappeared really quickly. I value it (the role of ruckmen) and if he’s there in the background pushing through and keeping pressure on, depending on injury he can maybe take an opportunity. We really want to push him along and get him available,” Lyon said.
Another injury concern is Steven Baker who still has three weeks of suspension to go. Baker injured his toe, with some reports suggesting the injury occurred while tenpin bowling.
Lyon would not elaborate on how Baker’s injury came about but admitted it could affect his chances of coming straight back into the side.
“It doesn’t really matter. We can’t distinguish, the outcome is the same. He’s injured and it’s a 10-day off legs then he’s back into full training,” he said.
“We’re really hopeful. Certainly it changes the equation of whether he can come straight back in.
“Is the work load going to be able to be enough to allow him to back in his experience and competitive spirit and come back in?”
“Or has it put him behind the eight-ball and he needs to continue to train until an opportunity opens up. We’ll assess that as it unfolds.”
Another fighting injury is Zac Dawson, the key defender missed last weekend's game with a hand injury and is doubtful to resume against the Roos.
“He trained separately this morning and we are hopeful he will be in the full session on Friday,” Lyon said.
"He is a chance, but at this stage I won’t know a lot more until Friday. We certainly don’t want to risk him as full-backs are hard to find.”
