JAEGER O'Meara's playing status for this weekend is no clearer after the star Hawthorn midfielder again did very little at the club's training session on Saturday.

The Hawks typically treat O'Meara with kid gloves during the week, given his injury history with his knees, and he is coming off a hip knock in last Sunday's clash with North Melbourne. 

He barely trained during Hawthorn's outdoor sessions in the past three days, although the club's sole extensive hitout in that time was a 90-minute session on Thursday. 

O'Meara briefly left the ground in the second quarter against the Kangaroos, but returned to perform a match-winning role with 32 disposals (12 contested), 12 tackles and 10 clearances. 

He is the undoubted leader of the Hawks' onball brigade and is having a brilliant year to date, with reigning Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell (broken leg) set to miss most of, if not all, this season. 

Liam Shiels and Shaun Burgoyne (both hamstring) are also still out for as many as three more weeks, while Dan Howe has played three VFL matches back from his own hip complaint.

Howe appears the player most likely to come in if O'Meara is a late scratch for Sunday's game with St Kilda. 

O'Meara took part in basic kicking practice at the start of Saturday's training, then took a backseat – standing near the goals at one end with James Frawley – as his teammates completed full-ground drills. 

The 25-year-old also sat out goalkicking practice, but it is unclear whether Hawthorn plans to run him through a more rigorous fitness test before he potentially faces the Saints.

It was a similar story for him on Thursday, while Friday's 40-minute session was a light one. 

Injured trio Grant Birchall (knee/calf), Darren Minchington (hamstring) and Mathew Walker (knee) were all out on the Waverley Park track before the others and trained separately thereafter.

Key forward Ryan Schoenmakers (Achilles) did not train after returning through the VFL last week. 

Birchall took part in some light kicking, but increased his running intensity throughout the session and ended it with some solid lap running with assistant coach Darren Glass. 

The four-time premiership defender last played in round 15, 2017, but has since undergone a PCL reconstruction and three further bouts of knee surgery, as well as having adductor and calf setbacks.