{"id":468865,"date":"2026-02-09T17:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468865\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:14:14","slug":"saints-spearhead-king-suffers-another-injury-setback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468865\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints spearhead King suffers another injury setback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__summary\">\n                Max King&#8217;s availability for Opening Round is under a cloud after suffering yet another injury\n            <\/p>\n<p>                                Max King poses for a photo during St Kilda&#8217;s team photo day on January 27, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n<p>MAX KING is facing yet another delayed start to the season after suffering a calf injury, which is expected to sideline the St Kilda spearhead for two to three weeks.<\/p>\n<p>King, who missed all of 2025 with knee issues, suffered the low-grade injury while integrating back into main training.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afl.com.au\/news\/1460670\/luckless-st-kilda-saints-forward-max-king-undergoes-more-knee-surgery-in-latest-setback\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">underwent a knee procedure in mid-December<\/a>, delaying his return to full training until late January.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; St Kilda&#8217;s footy boss Lenny Hayes said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However, we remain optimistic and will do everything we can to support Max and have him back in full training as soon as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                    Max King after the round 14 match between Brisbane and St Kilda at The Gabba, June 14, 2024. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n<p>St Kilda faces Collingwood on Sunday, March 8 as part of Opening Round, with the new injury casting a shadow over King&#8217;s availability.<\/p>\n<p>The Saints re-signed King to a six-year deal in 2024, taking him to 2032.<\/p>\n<p>King played 12 games in 2024 after suffering a knee injury mid-season, and 11 in 2023 after a pre-season shoulder reconstruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max King&#8217;s availability for Opening Round is under a cloud after suffering yet another injury Max King poses&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-468865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468865","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=468865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}