I have a class (Class ABC) that\'s instantiated by calling the constructor. Class ABC in turn has a helper class (Class XYZ) injected using auto-wired.
First question - yes you have null because class not initiated with spring
Second question - I think you can use aspectj support http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.2.x/spring-framework-reference/html/aop.html#aop-using-aspectj