St Kilda defender Brendon Goddard is poised to make his AFL return in Friday night's clash against the Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome less than a year after the 2002 number one draft pick was forced to undergo a knee re-construction.

Goddard, who enjoyed a career-best season for the Saints across half-back in 2006 before seriously injuring his knee in round seven last season, has won the praise of coach Ross Lyon for the way he been able to make it back so quickly.

"He has been incredibly dedicated from the day he came out of hospital," Lyon said of Goddard on Wednesday.

"He is a real model at this club for the way he goes about it."

"I have never had a re-construction myself but the players that have are an inspiration, the way they make it back so quickly and how they go about it."

"It's a real mental battle day in, day out but at the end of the day he (Goddard) is ready to go and play AFL footy again."

And Lyon has promised no easy return for Goddard saying he may not even get the luxury of starting on the interchange bench in his comeback game.

"Once you get picked, you let it rip and away you go," Lyon said.

"We won't be protecting anyone and once you are fit and available it's about what you can contribute to the team."

"There are no easy rides in AFL footy."

But while Goddard is poised to make his long-awaited return, the Saints' other long-term casualty in key defender Matt Maguire is still at least a couple of weeks away from returning from the serious foot injury that also cost him most of last season.

"Brendon is clearly ahead of Matt at the minute purely because he has got a lot more footy under his belt," Lyon said.

"Matt has got a fair way to go but Brendon is under strong consideration (to play this week)."

Lyon said Maguire was still lacking match practice.

"He has only really played a half a game and then almost a full game last week (in the VFL) so he is at least another two weeks away."

In contrast Lyon said Goddard had not put a foot wrong in his rehabilitation following his knee injury.

"He did every session over the summer, except the competitive work," Lyon said.

"And once he got through the nine month (recovery) period we then started to graduate him to one-on-one football and