DELISTED forward Ahmed Saad says he doesn't feel like he has been cast aside by St Kilda and he is hopeful he can continue with the club as a rookie next year.
Saad was cut from the club's list last Thursday ahead of the 2013 NAB AFL Draft, with the 24-year-old facing a maximum two-year ban from the game for taking a prohibited stimulant.
He will continue to train with the club however, and the Saints have promised to support him as he waits on the result of the anti-doping Tribunal he faced two weeks ago.
"I definitely don’t feel that I’ve been delisted and let go by any means," Saad told saints.com.au.
"The players, the staff and the coaches have all given me support and called me pretty much every day to make sure I’m OK, and most importantly make sure that my welfare and actual health is fine.
"It was a tough day to know that I got delisted but it is something that we did speak about and there are plans to go forward.
"The plan is hopefully they (St Kilda) can pick me up in the rookie draft and if everything goes OK I can be back playing next year and the year after."
Saad, who signed a two-year contract extension in March this year, acknowledged it was in the Saints' interests to delist him, given the chance he will be handed a lengthy suspension.
However, he said it was also in his best interests as he confronts an uncertain time.
Saad said continuing to train and communicate with the club, with the Saints' full list now back on the track, had been comforting.
"It is really important because that is what I love," he said.
"We have done that for the last two years and there is nothing I enjoy more than coming to the club and seeing the boys," Saad said.
"It really does take my mind of everything and it is kind of an outlet. It doesn’t matter if I’m delisted or not because to me I’m still part of the club."
Saad faced an anti-doping Tribunal on November 6, which was held in camera, and he should learn his fate in the next fortnight.
Details of the hearing are expected to be released at that time.
The hearing was chaired by AFL Tribunal chairman David Jones, who was joined on the committee by Dr Susan White, a sports physician from the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee, and former player Wayne Henwood, who is a member of the AFL Tribunal panel.
Saad began a provisional suspension in August after failing a post-match drug test in July.
He consumed a substance registered on the AFL's anti-doping banned list, believed to be a stimulant contained in the Viking Protein sports drink 'Before Battle'.
He has previously been linked to Viking Protein in an ambassadorial role.
