WITH a planned bye-week break and “mini pre-season” under his belt, Greater Western Sydney spearhead Jesse Hogan is fully fit for the remainder of the season, according to coach Adam Kingsley.

Hogan has not featured since the Giants’ round eight loss to Gold Coast, having been initially sidelined for two weeks with a hip pointer injury before undergoing a three-week reconditioning block that included the club’s round 13 bye.

After successfully overcoming the injury, Hogan has been named in the extended squad for Sunday afternoon’s match against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kingsley said Hogan was in great physical condition and entirely pain-free, explaining that the forward’s time on the sidelines was a deliberate strategy to treat his hip and build up his fitness.

“No (injury management), he’s pain-free. That was by design initially, spelling him to cover his hip, and then giving him a bit of a mini pre-season over the bye week and the week before,” Kingsley said.

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“We feel like he’s in great shape now to attack the back half of the season fully fit. We’ve done that in the past with a few players to good success, so hopefully we have the same success with Jesse.

Hogan could be joined in the side by utility Ryan Angwin, who is also in line to return from a fractured knuckle suffered against West Coast.

“Both trained really well, so barring any later medical reports to the contrary, I’m expecting both to play,” Kingsley said of the pair.

Despite being listed as a test this week, Cody Angove was not named in the extended squad, with Kingsley confirming the youngster will play on restricted minutes in the VFL this weekend to build up his fitness.

The last time the Giants met the Saints in round two at Engie Stadium, St Kilda secured a close four-point victory. The Saints held off a late fourth-quarter fightback from the GWS, who kicked five of the last six goals of the game to fall just short.

Kingsley said the team had revisited that encounter “heavily”.

“It was a disappointing game for us,” he said.

“We didn’t play at our best, and there were some things in that game that we’d really like to tidy up. Hopefully, we can do that and stand up.”

Probed if the Giants would send a tagger to Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Kingsley said the team will certainly put a plan in place to limit the dangerous defender’s impact.

However, they must also account for St Kilda’s broader, high-speed midfield.

“He always plays well; he’s a good player. We’ll deliberate over that,” Kingsley said of Wanganeen-Milera.

“We sent Ryan Angwin to him to start in the round two game. We dropped that halfway through the second quarter when the scoreboard was getting away from us, and we played better.

“That’ll be the discussion that we have: do we start with one, or do we go to one? We’ll certainly have attention on him. He’s too good to not have any intentions.

“We’ll come up with a plan for him, and there’s a few others. I like how their midfield, particularly last week, is going. Some real speed in there, some real urgency, and great spread. It’ll be more than just Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera. They’ve got a good team with a good group of young players coming through.”

The Giants and Saints will clash at 3:15pm (AEST), following the Socceroos’ 2pm kick off against Turkey to open their FIFA World Cup campaign in the Americas.

Marvel Stadium will act as an official live site during the World Cup, but because of broadcast restrictions, the match will not be shown on the stadium’s main screens before the first bounce. Instead, the game will be broadcast on smaller screens around the concourse, while the stadium MC will also provide live updates throughout the match.

Asked if the fanfare would create a distraction for the players during play, Kingsley said the event would instead provide a “beneficial” diversion.

“We’ll embrace it. I reckon our boys will be wanting to watch it during the game anyway, so as long as we’re playing our way and focused on the job, I’m sure they’ll check in on the result at half-time,” he said.

“We don’t consider that a distraction. You lose your concentration for a moment, you bring it back — it happens throughout the game. It happens in every game, irrespective of whether the Socceroos are playing or not.

“The players will want that. I think it’s important. It’s a stressful game, (AFL). It’s a long game; it’s 120 minutes long plus. You can’t concentrate for all of that, so little breaks are beneficial. There’s no doubt we’ll talk about it during the game at some point, but at the right moment.