Saints forward Owens cleared of major shoulder injury

After having scans and consulting a shoulder specialist on Monday, the 21-year-old was told he's avoided what the club described as "major AC joint damage".

Owens could play against Adelaide in the Saints' season-opener on March 16.

"It was a great result to get the all-clear from specialists this morning," St Kilda's general manager of football David Misson said in a statement."Mitch is already feeling much better but we'll still have to monitor his progress over the next two weeks as we lead into the start of our season."

The Saints also remain hopeful ruckman Rowan Marshall (pelvis) and Jack Sinclair (hamstring) will feature in round one as they continue to recover from their injuries.

Key forward Max King appears less likely to play against the Crows after minor knee surgery last week.

Midfielder Paddy Dow's return from a knee infection remains uncertain while injured trio Alix Tauru (back), Mattaes Phillipou (leg) and Dougal Howard (shoulder) are potentially 10 weeks away from returning to action.

Meanwhile, Richmond's Josh Smillie will miss the opening rounds of the season because of a lingering hamstring injury.

Smillie, who was pick No.7 at last year's national draft, was injured during an internal trial a month ago.

"Repeat scans have shown that while Josh has not re-injured his hamstring, it has not healed as well as we would have liked," Richmond's high performance manager Ben Serpell said in a statement.

"Rather than push him towards those early games, we will ensure he has a good block of training and strength work behind him before he returns to play."