Star Kangaroo Finn O’Sullivan could miss North Melbourne’s Gather Round clash with reigning premier Brisbane due to a fractured jaw.
The young gun was expected to undergo surgery on Tuesday after suffering the injury during the club’s SuperClash win over Carlton on Good Friday.
The club will have more information on O’Sullivan’s return date later in the week.
Backman Toby Pink will face a fitness test after picking up a knee knock against the Blues.
Pink, who played out the entire game despite the knock, appears to have pulled up well, North Melbourne head of performance Kevin White said.
“Post-match, Toby was put in a brace for management of that knock as best-practice recovery protocol,” White said.
“He had a run today without any limitations and will expect to train Thursday and be available to play this week.”
Fellow key defender Griffin Logue is a chance to return to the senior line-up for Round 5, but will also need to prove his fitness later in the week if he’s to face the Lions in what would be his 100th AFL appearance.
Logue last featured against West Coast in Round 2, injuring his hamstring during the opening stages of the first quarter.
“’Griff’ has gone really well across the past 10 days, making incremental improvement in strength and high-intensity function,” White said.
“He completed a game-load football conditioning session on Friday and will look to fully train this week to declare himself ready to play.”
Young defender Riley Hardeman will miss at least one week after spraining his right ankle late in the club’s Round 3 VFL victory over Carlton.
The No.17 previously injured his left ankle in a pre-season match simulation against Melbourne.
“Riley will be off legs across most of this week as he looks to get swelling down and improve the range in that joint,” White said.
“He will be unavailable this week with looking towards next week for re-loading once again.”
Josh Goater (quad) trained with Logue over the long weekend and has pulled up “extremely well”.
“The plan this week is to progress Josh’s kicking load away from main group training, with the aim being for him to rejoin group training next week and push for selection,” White said.
Onballer Luke Urquhart (knee) is still experiencing some soreness and will need more time before building back up to full function.
“Luke was away most of last week with illness which made it hard to get consistency into assessing and loading his knee,” White said.
“Hopefully next week we have greater clarity on how this is trending and a more exact timeline.”
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