St Kilda coach Ross Lyon pushed back at probing journalists after Max King’s return game ended prematurely.

King’s return after two seasons on the sidelines took a dark turn during the third quarter when he was ruled out with what St Kilda described as hamstring tightness.

The key forward didn’t participate in the team song and will go for scans on Monday to determine whether there is any muscle damage.

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Lyon was repeatedly asked about King’s physical and then mental health in a tense exchange.

“He’s got a tight hamstring, this is really specific, this is the exact conversation and I actually want to move onto the rest of the game,” Lyon said in part after earlier questions.

“He had a tight hamstring, he’ll be having a scan tomorrow and I will be updated tomorrow.

“I know (there’s interest), but I’m giving you everything I’ve got, I feel like — I’ll say it again — I’ll say it with a smile which is a difficult situation.

“He came off, tight hamstring, going to scan it tomorrow to see what that is, then he’ll know, our medical team will know.

“It might surprise you but I don’t dive into it, I didn’t not speak to Rowan Marshall when he had the back spasm.

“It may surprise you but AFL senior coaches don’t dive into the medical space… if we lean in and try to exert or even just check, it’s misinterpreted that you’re exerting and putting undue pressure.

“For all of you, it’s not an opaque process, it’s very transparent and professional. Let the cobblers do the cobbling.”

Lyon panned the room asking reporters if they were satisfied with how he had answered the questions after one particular exchange.

“I’ve told you four times, what haven’t I told you? Can I just ask, how many times have I answered that question?” Lyon said.

“I don’t understand why you’re raising your voice and why I am getting pushed back on. Hang on, have I pushed back on you doing your job?

“I am happy to dive in and put a pin in it, I like what Chris (Scott) said, if we put a pin in it, I feel like I’ve answered it directly with no shying away.

“I don’t know how I am becoming the bad guy here, does anyone think I haven’t answered the question?

“I feel like I’ve answered it three times, when I was a young coach, I used to get upset but then I just say I feel like I’ve answered the question three times.

“There’s no angst from me guys, I get the interest, but I have no information… there’s no angst.”

Lyon earlier said he and the club would standby the decision to reintroduce King through the senior side instead of a VFL hitout.

“The update I had is they’ll investigate and have a scan, I haven’t spoken to him,” he said.

“Well, I don’t even know the outcome yet, so how can it be an error? But we stand by his decision to play him.

“We have high-performance experts, we have (training) load, we have conditioning, no, we were really quite confident. It would be remiss of me to be as impulsive as I usually am.

“Of course we stand by it, hindsight is 20-20, isn’t it? We can’t be timid souls sitting on the sidelines, we’re in the arena making decisions.

“We’ve done it before, we did it in 2023 and played him, GWS, we got all the metrics… you do the work, it is what it is.”