A large portion of North Melbourne’s list is set to be fit and firing when the squad regroups for pre-season in November.
The Kangaroos emerged from their Round 24 clash with Adelaide without any fresh concerns, a welcome boost after a gruelling campaign.
Head of performance Kevin White has provided an update on the players who finished the 2025 season under injury clouds.
Zac Fisher (calf), Callum Coleman-Jones (calf), Darcy Tucker (back), Riley Hardeman (concussion) and Josh Goater (calf) have all been cleared through medical and fitness testing across the past two weeks.
Having struggled to get on the park this year, Goater has jetted off to Aspetar, a sports medical clinic in Doha, Qatar.
"He's with club physio Liam Phillips undergoing an intensive week of assessment, testing and education led by renowned practitioner Dr Enda King and his team," White said.
"This expedition will look at enhancing our approach to programming for Josh in search of greater durability and robustness moving into the new campaign."
Jackson Archer, Luke McDonald, Brayden George, Nick Larkey and Cam Zurhaar make up a small group of players who will return to pre-season training on modified programs.
Jackson Archer - Ankle/fibula
"Jackson is one that we will ensure careful management with early on in pre-season as he returns from his current injury, in conjunction with his previous injury history.
"We'll plan a slower build to enable high strength and function levels during this off-season period which may delay his return to group training in November."
Luke McDonald - AC joint
"Luke has been going really well for the past month getting in lots of running/conditioning while building his upper body strength work back up.
"He'll complete the off-season conditioning program and will need to pass strength markers prior to joining full contact group training."
Brayden George - Shoulder
"Brayden came out of the sling last week and has now started re-load running once again.
"He will complete the off-season conditioning program, and we envisage Brayden will be in non-contact group training until December.
Nick Larkey - Knee
"Nick will be on an individual rehab program across the off-season where we'll have time to enable strong healing and good strength to be built around that knee.
"At this stage he will not be involved in group training upon return."
Cam Zurhaar - Ankle
"Cam's ankle presented really well last week and he's ticking boxes early with how he presents post-procedure.
"He will have an individualised running program to build back up from so we wouldn’t anticipate Cam to be involved in group training upon return - with greater emphasis on building a strong running conditioning base."
Injury List
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