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Origin: Neutral, NSW or QLD calls!“Running off a cliff”: King opens up on treacherous injury journey
Jaiden Sciberras • July 8th, 2026 9:58 pm
Few AFL footballers have had a tougher run than Max King over the last four seasons.
However, all of his injury woes could very nearly be behind him.
Drafted by St Kilda with the fourth overall pick in 2018, King immediately announced himself as a star key forward in the AFL, booting 112 goals over his first 60 games including 52 over 22 games in 2022.
Unfortunately, King’s progression hit a roadblock in 2023, undergoing a shoulder reconstruction that limited him to just 11 games in his fourth season.
To make matters worse, a PCL tear in his left knee ended his season in 2024 after just 12 games, and now, two years on, King is still yet to return to AFL football.
Setback after setback, the now 26-year-old has endured one of the toughest battles that the competition has seen in recent years.
Speaking with Tom Morris thanks to Telstra, King specified the extent of his issues that cost him two years of senior AFL football.
“Essentially, there was a meniscus that was a bit loose, and old tear that was clunking in the knee,” King said on Channel 7's The Agenda Setters.
“For whatever reason, there was a few other things that they thought they could be and you obviously don’t want it to be that.
“The first two surgeries were no good. You repair it, which you know is probably a 50/50 chance to work, but you take the punt because you want to keep it in.
“It doesn’t work, you take it out and you get on with it. Down the line, you have a bit of knee stuff when you’re older… it’s the risk that you take to play footy.”
The difficulties for King weren’t just physical, with the continued stress of the unknown weighing heavily on his mental strength over the course of his journey.
“The sessions when we were still figuring it out ended up being six months of just running straight lines and waiting for it, knowing that one step it’s going to clunk and be pretty painful, but not knowing which step, so you just push on,” he said.
“It’s like you’re running until you’re running off a cliff, but you don’t know when it’s coming. Bloody tough physically and mentally, but I’m very happy to be over that now.
“(It was most difficult) after the second surgery, when you build back up again for a few weeks and the same thing happens.
“You feel a bit helpless and unsure of the direction. It gets a bit trickier when you’re floating in no-mans land, not sure what the next play is.”
For King, it wasn’t just the stress of the unknown, but at times, the stress of the known.
In October of 2024, Max King signed a monster extension with the Saints, committing to the club until 2032 on a deal reportedly amounting close to $1.5 million per season.
Since signing his extension, King has failed to make a single senior appearance.
“There’s definitely times where you wrestle with, ‘I’m on a big contract and I want to be paying the club back and playing’, but I don’t think that’s helpful to go down that rabbit hole,” he said.
“I’m doing everything I can to get back as soon as I can and play good footy. That’s all I can do, really.
“At some points I have thought that, but it’s just not a space I want to live in. I feel the support from inside the club and that’s what matters to me.
“I feel like if I can get myself right and put together some good footy, it will be worth it for the club. That’s what I’m invested in.”
Despite the incredible challenge, King has come through in full health and has confirmed his plans for a return to senior football as early as this season, and he doesn’t plan on slowing down his progression any time soon.
“Yep, (playing this season is) the aim,” he said.
“I’m not rehabbing to help the twos. Whether I have to play one or two in there to get going, it’s whatever the guys think, but I think I’ll get to a spot where I’m ready to come in and help us.
“I’m not particularly interested in coming back to be where I was. There are steps to that, and whether it takes a couple weeks, a couple of months, whatever it is, I feel like I can come back and be a really good player for the Saints.”
King is currently undergoing a block of conditioning in preparation to return to senior football in the coming weeks.
