Third-year Kangaroo Brayden George is set to make his long-awaited return to competitive football this weekend, having recovered from the ACL injury he suffered in June last year.
The highly rated 21-year-old is expected to feature in the VFL side's clash with Essendon at Windy Hill on Friday under capped game time.
It will have been 320 days between competitive games for George, whose ACL injury was the second of his young career.
"Brayden has been flawless in his rehab and has banked great loads of training on-field," North Melbourne head of performance Kevin White said.
"Through the reconditioning period, Brayden has made significant improvements in his strength, plyometrics, landing and cutting mechanics which provides him with confidence and a great platform to build from."
Defenders Zac Fisher (hamstring) and Matt Whitlock (ankle) are also available for selection.
"Zac presented well last week and had a strong session at Arden Street over the weekend," White said.
"On Tuesday, he cleared his strength markers and a soft tissue running test to now be available to play this week.
"Matt was put through a solid footy conditioning session on Saturday to progress his top-end function through football drills. He pulled up well and fully trained with the main group on Tuesday to put his hand up to play."
Youngster Josh Goater has suffered a setback on his road to a return, having picked up a small quad strain during his reconditioning session over the weekend. He will re-load with running on Friday and build once again from there.
Callum Coleman-Jones (Achilles) is edging closer towards a comeback and is now integrating into unrestricted group training during the week, before being put through game-loading footy conditioning sessions on the weekend.
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