Second-year Roo Zac Banch is available for selection as North Melbourne travels west this week for games against Fremantle and West Coast.
The small forward has overcome a hamstring injury which has sidelined him since early May and is all set to make his return.
“Zac has put in huge work over the past two weeks in preparing himself for a return to play this week,” North Melbourne head of performance Kevin White said.
“He’ll slot into main group programming this week and already fully trained on Monday unrestricted.”
Onballer Tom Powell (groin) is trending well but remains 2-3 weeks away from a return, while Callum Coleman-Jones (concussion) is expected to be available next week.
"Tom will reload run tomorrow (Wednesday) and look to build out his football function and intensity over the next 2-3 weeks in preparation for a return to play,” White said.
“A conservative management approach has been taken with ‘CJ’ (Coleman-Jones) where we gave him more time in the early recovery phase after his head knock.
“He’ll build through moderate-intensity, non-contact football loading this week and then aim to pass through contact protocols.”
River Stevens (knee) has been working hard over the break and should miss just one more week, but fellow youngster Luke Urquhart (knee) is still under close monitoring.
“River is trending well with most elements of his testing protocols,” White said.
“The main thing we want to see is strong progression through his knee power with jump testing. He’ll look to clear power tests and return to full training next week.
“Luke completed his first reload run session on Monday and pulled up well today from that.
"The main aim across the next two weeks will be graduating his football and running loads in conjunction with close monitoring of his symptoms to then determine a return to play date.”
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