Kayne Turner is confident he’ll be back for the second half of 2020. 

The small-forward suffered a fracture of the medial sesamoid in his left foot during the Marsh Community Series game against the Western Bulldogs.

“It happened pretty early in the game,” Turner told North Media.

“I thought I might’ve just been stood on so I didn’t really think anything of it. 

"It's one of those injuries that can present no clinical signs for a while and then an incident can occur … sort of like the straw that broke the camel's back."

North's medical staff have elected to try and let the bone heal naturally in the hope of reducing Turner’s time on the sidelines.

“We got a couple of opinions. One opinion was the recovery and rehabilitation from the surgery could have been up to six months,” he said. 

“With this conservative approach we’re hoping it’s six to eight weeks if the bone heals as it should.

“That’ll give me the best chance to return around the mid-year mark, which is what we’ve been discussing.” 

The next step in Turner’s recovery is to undergo tests to determine the speed of his recovery.

“It’s still a bit sore to weight-bear so I’m in a boot and on crutches," he added. 

“Over the next two weeks we’re going to do some small tests to see if the strength in it is gradually improving.”