ST KILDA coach Ross Lyon admitted he is fearing the worst following a serious knee injury to inspirational midfielder Lenny Hayes in St Kilda’s draw against Richmond on Friday night.

The Saints confirmed Hayes will receive scans to reveal the extent of the injury over the next few days after he twisted his left knee in a seemingly-innocuous midfield scramble during the third quarter.

But Lyon isn’t holding out hope for a miracle, and conceded the injury had an effect on his squad in the heat of the battle as the Saints still search for their first win in 2011. 

“[When] Hayes did his knee - it looked pretty bad and it filtered through,” Lyon said after the game.

“It doesn’t look very good at all. We will access and responsibly inform the market as soon as we can.”

“There is nothing to hide here - it doesn’t look great.”

But despite the loss of Hayes, Lyon is confident his charges can pick up the slack on field, just as the midfielder and others responded following the loss of captain Nick Riewoldt with a hamstring injury last year.

“He is obviously a great leader and player for us, but post-game I addressed it with the players. When Riewoldt went down, we talked about Hayes’s response [last year],” he said.

“It’s a weight of numbers game. Injuries shouldn’t matter to a point.”

After much scrutiny of the Saints and their style of play following their low-scoring one-point loss to the Cats in the opening round, Lyon said his team needs to prepare itself more effectively during the week.

“We just have to keep trying to prepare consistently so we can play consistent footy. There is no doubt it reflects our consistency of preparation,” he said.

“That’s the underlining issue to be honest.”

The St Kilda coach was left to rue the one that got away against a Richmond side they have defeated in their past 13 encounters before Friday night, and Lyon forecasted possible changes to the squad for their must-win match against Essendon next Sunday.

Lyon said the likes of Jack Steven, Nicholas Winmar and Rhys Stanley are all a chance to force their way into the St Kilda line-up if the senior players fail to lead by example. 

“We’ll continue to bleed some kids in because we know that needs to be done,” he said.

“With some senior players out of form, if they don’t change quick enough then we will continue to bleed it in."