LUCKLESS midfielder Nathan Freeman is set to relaunch his stalled first pre-season at St Kilda on Monday as he continues his recovery from another hamstring strain.

Freeman suffered the slight strain to his troublesome right hamstring earlier this week, extending his wretched run since he was recruited by Collingwood with pick 10 in the 2013 NAB AFL Draft.

But the 20-year-old, who was granted a trade from the Magpies after failing to play a game, is nearly ready to start running again and the Saints hope the talented youngster will resume full training early in the New Year.

"He'll actually start running again Monday, which is good," general manager of football performance Jamie Cox said on Saturday.

"It wasn't a major mishap – it was obviously disappointing for Nathan because he'd been training really strongly and was starting to run at full clip again.

"It was a little setback, but Nathan starts running again on Monday and will do his rehab over Christmas with a view to hopefully getting into full training not long into the New Year."

Freeman, who only managed two NAB Challenge appearances and four VFL games for the Magpies, was in the midst of an impressive pre-season with the Saints before his latest hiccup.

Knowing the youngster's tough history, Cox said he went out of his way to make sure Freeman has remained upbeat.

"He's in great spirits. He knows that he's got a lot of good conditioning under his belt in the couple of months he's been at the club," Cox said at the Saints' Be Merry at Moorabbin event.

"Everyone's disappointed that he's had a little setback, but he's in terrific spirits. He knows that he's taken some good strides forward despite this."

Freeman's setback is one of only a few injury worries for the Saints, including Daniel McKenzie who is recovering from minor groin surgery.

Last year's No.1 draft pick Paddy McCartin has impressed with his improved aerobic capacity, with the young forward going toe-to-toe with athletic beast Josh Bruce in pre-season testing.

Fellow key forward Nick Riewoldt is set to return from his off-season in the US after the New Year, when the Saints will vote on the captaincy.

Riewoldt could lead the club for an 11th season, and Cox expected the 33-year-old to put his hand up again.

"He's been such a terrific leader for our club, I'm sure he would, but we'll deal with that in a couple of weeks' time once we've all had a good break," he said.

The majority of the squad trained for two hours at Albert Park early on Saturday despite the extreme heat and will take on a gut-busting time-trial on Tuesday before heading off for their Christmas break.

Cox praised new fitness chief Matt Hornsby's pre-season plan to date, with a big focus on fast-tracking fitness gains among the Saints' youth.

"He's done a really good job, in two months, getting our guys and hopefully taking them to that next level of fitness which is obviously necessary with the young core of the group," Cox said.

"We've had a pretty tough week coming off some camps (on the Sunshine Coast and a young leaders' camp) where they worked pretty hard as well.

"I reckon a lot of our guys are getting through to the finish line of Christmas just to have a break and freshen up, but training's been really impressive.

"We've been really pleased with the workload our guys have put in and the way they've attacked the heat and got the benefit from it."