Nathan Freeman’s longevity in the game was always going to be St Kilda’s sole focus, rather than rushing him back to senior football ahead of schedule, says Saints Coach Alan Richardson.

The former top-ten draft pick has been plagued by hamstring issues since he entered the AFL system at the end of 2013. Although since crossing to St Kilda during last year’s trade period, Freeman’s injuries have been at the minor end of the spectrum.

Freeman, 20, played his first game at the Saints with Sandringham’s reserves three weeks ago, producing a dominant display on return, accumulating 46 possessions in under three quarters of game time, before suffering the latest setback at training last week.

For Richardson, 2016 is about preparing Freeman for a long and prosperous career.

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“I just want by the end of the year him to be ready to go for next year,” Richardson told the media at a press conference at Moorabbin on Friday.

“This year was all about bullet-proofing his body so that he could have a long and successful career for us.

“He’s got some tremendous attributes that we need – we traded for him because of that. It certainly wasn’t short-term, it was long-term.

“It’s a bit like going for a power forward versus a midfielder with pick one; that’s a much more long-term view.”

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Richardson conceded the Saints were prepared for setbacks to occur during Freeman’s progress given his chequered hamstring history, with the latest concern not ideal, but not a surprise.

“Given his history, alarm bells go off. But it’s going to happen, we knew that. He’s a player, who with two years of hamstring issues, is going to take a while. And that’s proven to be the case,” Richardson said.

“He hasn’t come in and gone without hiccup, he’s had a few hiccups and we knew that was going to happen. We’ll be really conservative with Nathan.

“Hopefully he’ll be right to go again in a few weeks. And when I say right to go I mean start again in terms of playing some reserves footy and then we’ll see what happens from there.”

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