AHMED Saad has been welcomed back at St Kilda with open arms and is poised to burst back onto the AFL scene, defender Jarryn Geary says.

Saad was re-drafted by the Saints in last week's NAB AFL Rookie Draft after last playing AFL football in round 19, 2013.

He is in the final stages of serving an 18-month ban for ingesting a banned substance, which he consumed in a sports drink midway through last year.
While Saad can't officially join in pre-season training until early next year, Geary said he had been warmly welcomed by his teammates.

They were already in New Zealand when the rookie draft was held and kept a keen eye on where Saad landed, after he was linked to Collingwood and Carlton in the weeks leading into it.

"A few of the boys have sent him text messages and welcomed him back," Geary told AFL.com.au this week, during the club's high performance training camp in New Zealand.

"It's great to have him back, even though we haven't seen him yet but we're looking forward to that.

"He was a pretty popular guy when he came into the team and he was here for a couple of years and he was a big part of it for that time.

"He was obviously disappointed with how things went but he's done the time now and everyone was really excited and eager to see what would happen in the rookie draft because we'd heard a few other clubs were interested in him.

"We were just hoping he'd make it to us and he did, so the boys are really excited to have him back."

The small forward was taken with the Saints’ second selection – No.19 – after Jack Sinclair (No.1), and before Brenton Payne (No.37) and Adam Schneider (No.54), who was delisted as a senior player for list management purposes.

Saad was suspended in November 2013 for 18 months, which was later appealed by ASADA with the governing body seeking a two-year ban.

That appeal was later dismissed by the AFL and Saad trained on his own in a bid to get himself fit enough for consideration in this year's drafts.
Geary said a few of the Saints had stayed in touch with him while he was serving his ban.

"I would send him messages every now and then to see how he was going," he said.

"When I got injured last year he sent me a couple of messages to see how I was tracking.

"He's definitely kept relationships with plenty of the boys and he's a really nice guy and easy to get along with.

"I'm sure he'll just kick off where he left off."

Saad isn’t with his teammates in New Zealand, as his suspension means he can't start training in a professional environment until the New Year.

Geary joked the skilled goalkicker with the distinctive long run-up would likely have to get used to the idea of not wearing the No.21 guernsey he had already played 29 games in, given it had a new owner.

"I don't think he's going to get his number back; I think Luke Delaney is pretty keen to keep ahold of it, so it will be interesting to see what number he gets," he said.

"But I'm sure he'll just be happy to be welcomed back into the club."