St Kilda midfielder Jack Steven back from Broome break and ready to face Gold Coast Suns

Jack Steven has returned from a Broome escape in a better state of mind and now appears likely to feature in St Kilda’s season-opener against Gold Coast.

Jack Steven has put his hand up for Round 1 selection after returning to St Kilda. Picture: Michael Klein

Jack Steven has returned from a Broome escape in a better state of mind and now appears likely to feature in St Kilda’s season-opener against Gold Coast.

Steven, who last month took leave from the club to deal with personal issues, retreated to the Broome property owned by long-time Saints sponsor and Broome Shire president Harold Tracey.

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Steven trained on his own in the West Australian heat on his 10-day break from the club.

While it’s understood the four-time best and fairest isn’t completely over his mental demons, he has medical approval to play and only needs to prove his fitness in Thursday’s training session to be named for Round 1.

Jack Steven has put his hand up for Round 1 selection after returning to St Kilda. Picture: Michael Klein

“Jacko’s in a really good space, which is brilliant,” Saints coach Alan Richardson said yesterday.

“It was great for him to get away and have a break and feel much better about his footy and life in general.

“He’s been really positive the last couple of weeks here. His training has been pretty strong, he needs to take it to another level this week and hopefully he can do that.

“Right now it’s probably lineball, but he’s a terrific player so we will give him every opportunity.

“It’s only Tuesday … we play on Sunday, so there’s a bit of time.”

Saints recruit Dan Hannebery is facing a delayed start to his career at his new club. Picture: Michael Klein

Meanwhile, Steven’s midfield partner in crime, Dan Hannebery, is still struggling with a persistent hamstring issue and won’t play until the end of the month at the earliest, and potentially in the VFL.

“Because someone’s had a lack of load for so long now, talking a couple of years, because of injury and because he’s such a warrior, he’s put himself out there when he probably hasn’t been physically capable of doing the work, he’s struggled to back it up,” Richardson said.

“I reckon that’s probably going to take a while, so if that’s a week or two or even longer in the VFL, that’s fine.

“Whenever we up the load and the intensity to as close as we can get it on the training track to game day, he’s not quite getting there. He’s just been getting a little bit sore, so it could take a while.

“We were hopeful that he might be ready to play footy, whether it’s AFL or VFL, in Round 2. I reckon that’s probably a bit unlikely now.”

Richardson said there was still no timeline on a return for concussed key forward Paddy McCartin, who is yet to resume training after his latest hit against the Western Bulldogs in the JLT series on March 10.