{"id":468651,"date":"2026-02-09T14:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468651\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:47:24","slug":"st-kildas-max-king-suffers-another-injury-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468651\/","title":{"rendered":"St Kilda’s Max King suffers another injury blow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max King has suffered another injury, further frustrating the St Kilda key forward’s bid for an AFL return.<\/p>\n

The one positive for King and the Saints is that it’s a calf muscle problem, rather than the repeated knee injuries that meant he played no football last year.<\/p>\n

But off-contract Port Adelaide ruck Ivan Soldo will not play this year after rupturing the ACL in his right knee during training.<\/p>\n

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St Kilda confirmed on Monday that King suffered a “low-grade” calf injury as he returned to full training.<\/p>\n

That will delay the comeback of one of the AFL’s most injury-cursed players by two to three weeks.<\/p>\n

“Max has put together a solid block of work this pre-season and it is disappointing for him to face this setback albeit on the lower end of the scale,” new Saints football boss Lenny Hayes said on the club website.<\/p>\n

“However, we remain optimistic and will do everything we can to support Max and have him back in full training as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

Injuries meant the 2018 No.4 draft pick managed only 23 games across the 2023-24 seasons. His last AFL game was round 17 in the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

King needed more surgery on his right knee in December, sidelining him until late last month. He initially injured the knee in a February practice match and had two other operations.<\/p>\n

The Saints re-signed King to a six-year deal in 2024, taking him to 2032.<\/p>\n

Since his 2020 senior debut, King has kicked 159 goals in 83 games.<\/p>\n

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Also on Monday, Port Adelaide confirmed back-up ruck Soldo suffered the dreaded ACL injury in a training drill earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

It is a massive blow for the 29-year-old, who has played only eight games since joining the Power from Richmond ahead of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

Soldo was part of the 2019 premiership-winning team at the Tigers before rupturing the ACL in his left knee in 2020.<\/p>\n

He moved to Alberton on a three-year contract in 2024, but fell behind Jordon Sweet as the Power’s first-choice ruck, featuring in just one game last year.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Collingwood star Nick Daicos had strapping on his left leg at training, while rising Adelaide star Sid Draper’s day was reportedly cut short with a recurring groin issue.<\/p>\n

Daicos is one of the biggest Victorian names for Saturday night’s State of Origin match against WA at Perth’s Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n

Coleman Medallist Jeremy Cameron pulled out of the Victorian line-up on Sunday as he continues to recover from the broken arm he suffered in last year’s grand final loss to Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Cameron told the Geelong website that “ideally” with another week of contact work he might be ready for the game.<\/p>\n

Gold Coast key forward Ben King, last season’s Coleman Medal runner-up, has taken Cameron’s place for Victoria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max King has suffered another injury, further frustrating the St Kilda key forward’s bid for an AFL return.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-468651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}