Saint Dan may need a rebuild, says coach

ST KILDA coach Alan Richardson is confident his club will get on top of Dan Hannebery’s injury woes despite the coach saying the former Swan needed to be “rebuilt”.

Hannebery struggled with injury in his final season in Sydney before joining the Saints on a five-year deal.

The hard-running midfielder has suffered calf and hamstring complaints during the summer but had hoped to return early in the season.

However Richardson Hannebery’s body had coped with the demands.

“He’s been getting sore, basically anywhere to do with his legs, particularly his calves and his hamstrings, but as we’ve upped the load in terms of intensity, his body has just struggled,” the coach told SEN.

“He’s had two years where he just hasn’t been able to put in the work.

“He’s gone out and played without great prep. He’s been able to do that for a fair while, he’s a real warrior … I reckon it’s caught up with him.”

Richardson said the leftfooter was still some way off starting his career in a Saints jumper.

“To some extent he needs to be rebuilt,” he said. “I don’t think I did say Round 4, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s longer than Round 4 [until he plays]. It’ll take a while. Now I’m hoping it’ll be sooner. It’ll depend a little bit on how he responds but right now, the response has been slow.

“Did we think it was going to be as significant as this? No we didn’t, but we did know that we were getting in a bloke that needed, to some extent, to rebuild. [So] probably not to this extent but that’s OK — he’s here for a long time, he’s not here just for a short time.

“If it means he’s not with us for a month longer than we thought, that’s fine. We think overall he’s going to be enormous for our group.” said not