The gun midfielder suffered the injury early in the second half of last Saturday night's narrow win against Charles Sturt University.

However, he played out the game and even went to work for a couple of days early this week before deciding to get it checked out at the hospital.

"It was way worse than what I thought - I broke my metacarpal and fractured the two bones next to it," May said.

"I've never done anything wrong to my hand, so I didn't know what to expect. That's the worst part.

"I just thought it was a sprain or something. As soon as I saw the doctor, she was like, 'That's definitely broken' and then I got an X-ray and it was stuffed.

"So there goes a chunk of this season, anyway."

May is hoping to avoid surgery, with his hand in a cast for a couple of weeks and then to be re-examined.

He said the 10-week recovery timeframe is considered a best-case scenario, meaning he's unlikely to be back before late July.

May has been a big presence in the Saints' midfield in recent seasons, including to start this year.

He's also been injury free since getting over some ankle problems a couple of years ago, and developed into one of the most dangerous and influential players in the league.

"I was shattered. But I'll just stay involved and keep myself busy around the boys and focus on hopefully coming back a couple of weeks before finals would be ideal," he said.

He's backing his teammates to make sure they're well and truly in the mix at that stage. The Saints have Corey Watt returning this week against The Rock-Yerong Creek while assistant coach Guy Ward should be back after next week's representative bye.

"It will also give a chance for a couple of the young fellas, who are sort of in and out of the middle, to have a bit of leadership," May said.

"Jed Winter, he's starting in the middle this weekend. And I think it'll do him the world of good, it'll be good for his confidence.

"I reckon there's enough depth anyway to cover myself."

Teenager Kane Flack, who's just been called into the Farrer League rep squad, is the Saints' other inclusion for Saturday, with forward Dayne Hancock out with a knee.

The Magpies are chasing their first win of the year in Saturday's game at McPherson Oval - the scene of a 160-point hiding last year.

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