ST KILDA defender Jake Carlisle will spend 12 weeks in rehabilitation following hip surgery.
Carlisle has been suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) until November 13 as a member of the 'Essendon 34'.
"He will (be ready for pre-season). The surgery itself is minor (but) the recovery itself is pretty slow, because we're talking about the hip, and he's a big guy," coach Alan Richardson said on Friday.
"If we did it any later, that has the potential to have some sort of negative influence on his pre-season (for 2017).
"We'll be really conservative with that, as you can imagine."
Richardson denied reports saying the Saints were shocked by the condition of Carlisle's hip.
"In our full screening of Jake, we knew that he had a condition with his hip. The plan was that he play the year and then have the surgery," the coach said.
"Given the circumstances, the alternative was to do the surgery now so that he can be ready to go when he comes back. It was as simple as that.
The Saints gave up draft picks No. 5 and 24 last year and received Carlisle and pick No. 14 from Essendon.
St Kilda's treatment of the suspended Carlisle has been approved by the AFL.
Emergency Eli Templeton, who was dropped after the round one loss to Port Adelaide, trained with the team that faces the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night at Etihad Stadium, in skipper Nick Riewoldt's 300th game.
Jack Sinclair, who was included this week after collecting 27 disposals and kicking four goals in Sandringham's 147-point win against Box Hill in a VFL practice match last week, spent time practising stoppages with the midfield.
Blake Acres was omitted despite collecting 22 disposals against Port.
Richardson said excellent VFL performances from Sinclair and Paddy McCartin (25 disposals, seven goals) pushed Acres out of the team.
"(Acres') last couple of games have shown some improvement. He's had a couple of really strong quarters in each of those games," Richardson said.
"We as a team need to move on from just being OK. We need to be better than OK.
"Are we OK with three quarters? No we're not. Are we OK with inconsistent performance from an individual? No we're not.
"We think he's on the right track. He's going to be a very good player for us for a long time."
The coach paid tribute to Riewoldt's contribution to the Saints.
"He's done a lot for our footy club, when clearly at times he's had a choice. He's stayed with the club and showed incredible loyalty," he said.
With the inclusion of key forward McCartin giving the Saints more flexibility, Richardson said Riewoldt is likely to spend more time up the ground against the Bulldogs.
"Potentially. Last time we played against the Dogs, Rooey spent a fair bit of time up on the wing and that was positive for us. He'll play forward as well," Richardson said.
