North Melbourne is hopeful Ben Jacobs will return for Sunday's clash against Gold Coast, but the run-with midfielder is yet to be cleared of lingering concussion after-effects.
Sidelined since North's round 12 loss to Geelong, Jacobs was named in North's team for last Sunday's clash against Essendon, but was a late withdrawal.
The 26-year-old was set to train on Thursday with the Kangaroos' main group, but coach Brad Scott said he remained in doubt for Sunday's game.
"It's a process that he's gone through the past couple of weeks, so he knows the process pretty well and he'll train again today," Scott said on Thursday.
"The news is fairly positive, but again it's a sense of déjà vu when I stand here three or four days before the game suspecting that he'll play and then him not coming up.
"All we can do is back our doctors in and just assure our players that we won't play them unless we're 100 per cent certain that they're fit to play."
Jacobs played a significant part in the Roos' strong start to the season, blanketing opposition stars such as Dustin Martin, Patrick Cripps, Tom Mitchell and Clayton Oliver over the opening 12 rounds.
He was sorely missed against the Bombers, with his likely opponent, Zach Merrett, dominating with 32 possessions, 12 clearances and a goal.
Asked whether the Kangaroos had considered using another player in a lock-down role in Jacobs' absence, Scott said they done so at length in the lead-up to the Essendon game – and again during the match as Merrett ran amok in the midfield – but had deemed it too big a risk.
"We just can't clone Ben Jacobs unfortunately," Scott said.
"It's a big decision to make if you get it wrong. The tagger is a really effective part of your game if it works, but if it doesn't work it can be a bit of a double whammy in that, one, you don't stop the opposition player and you stop a bit of drive yourself."
After a good run with injury in the first half of the season, North has suffered several setbacks in recent weeks with Jarrad Waite (calf, indefinite), Billy Hartung (hamstring, 4-5 weeks) and Mason Wood (hamstring, 3-4 weeks) sidelined along with Jacobs.
However, Scott was confident Waite would play again this season despite the uncertainty surrounding his return date.
"It's probably a shorter-term horizon than a longer-term (one), but again with his age (35) and injury history we just want to be sure. We're certainly expecting him back – it's just a matter of when, not if," he said.
With Waite and fellow tall Wood unavailable, Scott said the Kangaroos would consider bringing in another key forward to support Coleman Medal leader Ben Brown against the Suns.
"Our key-position stocks are pretty good across our list. (Ben) McKay, (Sam) Durdin and (Nick) Larkey have been playing great footy at VFL level and only really been kept out of the AFL side by the form of Brown, (Robbie) Tarrant and co.," Scott said.
