Ruck-forward Justin Koschitzke remains in contention for a surprise AFL call up when St Kilda play Richmond on Friday night at the MCG.

Complications after off-season ankle surgery means Koschitzke has played no football at any level so far this year.

But he has trained well in the last few days and might come into the senior lineup.

St Kilda could also use Koschitzke to bolster their attack, which only managed six goals in last Friday night's one-point loss to Geelong.

"He's been in training for over a week and a half now so another full training session today (Wednesday) and I'm sure we'd love to throw him straight back in," said Saints assistant coach Peter Berbakov.

"But it's the balance between the number of full training sessions coming back from some surgery as to whether we throw him back in this week or the next week."

In the wake of last Friday night, the Saints could also experiment again with Sam Gilbert in attack as they try to boost their scoring firepower.

Gilbert was a pre-season experiment in attack, but he requested a move back to defence and played down back against the Cats.

"We had him forward in most of the pre-season games and we just felt that one of our strengths has been our defence so we thought we'd shore him up back down there," Berbakov said.

"He's going to be flexible, he's a great player who can also play midfield so there's all those options for him to play all over the ground."

First-round draft pick Jamie Cripps is also in line for his AFL debut.

Cripps was in contention last week, but was ruled out because of illness.

"He's played the last two games at Sandringham - he's certainly got a lot of talent for a young kid so he's not far off," Berbakov said.

"Like most young kids coming in they just need to build that fitness base and get some regular games."

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