ST KILDA defender Sam Gilbert will make his return to football for VFL team Sandringham this week.
Gilbert hasn’t played at any level since injuring his foot in the round three loss to West Coast.
He required surgery on the foot in the off-season and was re-injured after just three games.
The 27-year-old said he was jumping out of his skin to take on Richmond’s VFL team on Saturday.
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“I can’t wait. It is going to be awesome. I’m also looking forward to getting down to the game and really helping the young players,” Gilbert told saints.com.au.
Gilbert has never worn a Zebras jumper since the Sandringham/St Kilda alliance began in 2009, but he has worked closely with coach Simon McPhee and his coaching staff during his time off.
“I’ve been following Sandringham pretty closely. While I was injured I helped out a bit with the coaching and I think one thing I can bring to the team is a bit of height to the defence and some leadership to the team,” he said.
The agile defender said he was 100 per cent fit after three weeks of training with the main group and seven weeks of running.
And while he is excited to be playing at VFL level, he does have ambitions to get back in the senior team before the season is over, for more reasons than one.
“The boys had a good win against Fremantle and I’d love to be part of some wins to finish off the season,” he said.
“Lenny Hayes is a legend of the club and I’m very honoured to have played with him so I’d love to get out there and play another game with him.”
Saints coach Alan Richardson said Gilbert was brought back via the VFL to condition him for higher honours.
“He will need a little bit of time and it may only be one week, or it may be a couple of weeks until he comes back into our senior team,” Richardson said.
“He’s been running and training strongly for a long time. Given that it was a recurrence of a foot injury, we were pretty conservative.
