Luke McDonald won’t play again this season after fracturing his fibula against Essendon.

The break occurred in the final quarter of the game and led to McDonald coming off the ground immediately.

McDonald has had a plate inserted at the site of the fracture, close to his right ankle.

North Melbourne GM football Cameron Joyce said McDonald will be targeting a return in the coming preseason.

“He’ll be up and running before preseason starts and I think he’ll train before Christmas,” Joyce said.

“We’re hoping that he can have a solid and largely uninterrupted preseason campaign.”

Nick Larkey will play despite his ongoing heart palpitations, with Joyce saying the club’s approach to managing the problem hasn’t changed.

“The cardiologist says he can keep playing with it,” Joyce said.

Bailey Scott is still a chance to return at the end of the season despite fracturing a bone in his foot.

Scott, who has played four games this season, had surgery in June to fix the problem.

“It’s still touch and go as to whether he’ll play again this season,” Joyce said.

“He needs to see the surgeon and have an x-ray, and depending on those results he could potentially start running again.”

Dom Tyson, who has been out with a calf injury, is looking to increase his training load in order to prove his fitness according to Joyce.

“If he pulls up well he’ll look to have a good session with the rehab guys on the weekend,” Joyce said.

“Then if he trains and recovers well next week he could be available in round 19.”

Tom McKenzie is a chance to return for the end of the season, with the club not rushing his recovery from stress fractures in his back.

“Unfortunately he had a recurrence of the stress fractures which is why we’ve taken a very slow approach,” Joyce said.

“He’s got through 5-6 weeks of running now and he’s been symptom free.”

“If he ticks off what he needs to in the next couple of weeks we’ll make a call on whether he'll play this season or not.”

Tom Murphy will return to action this weekend, provided he recovers well from the final training.

He’s assessed as likely to play this week according to Joyce, but the club don’t want to needlessly risk him.

“He had a week of calf soreness after his ankle injury. He couldn’t quite propel himself off that ankle which meant that he overloaded his calf,” Joyce said.

“We’ve taken our time with him and he could play a modified game this weekend.”