Ball has missed two weeks with the injury he sustained in the Saints’ round 18 victory over Port Adelaide and will miss this weekend's crucial match up with fifth-placed Adelaide.
“I’m coming on pretty well,” he said.
“I’ve started running, not very fast yet, but I’ll hopefully build that up today and through the rest of the week. I’m still aiming to be back for round 22 against Essendon.”
Ball admitted that the injury lay off at such a pivotal part of the year had been frustrating.
“I’ve never done a hamstring before so (I don't) know what to expect or how to deal with it. This time of year it’s pretty frustrating to be sitting back and watching.”
The meeting with the Crows at the Telstra Dome is St. Kilda’s last home game of the year on Sunday, and will double as a tribute to Saints veteran Robert Harvey who is due to retire at the end of the season.
But Ball said that the tribute would not detract from the importance of the game itself, nor would the team be using it as a motivational tool.
“That certainly won’t distract him or the players too much," he said.
"It will be business as usual. He announced his retirement two weeks ago and we came out and didn’t play very well against Collingwood so I don’t think we’ll be relying on that to get us going.
"I think all the motivation we need is that it will probably get us a finals' berth if we get the points. That’s all we’ll need.”
