GM Football Brady Rawlings has praised Jack Ziebell’s dedicated approach to his recovery from a serious knee injury.

The North Melbourne skipper suffered a high-grade medial strain in the season-opener against St Kilda, but the two-month postponement has allowed him time to get back to full fitness.

“Obviously we’ve still got a bit of time until round two … but if we could play tomorrow, he’d be playing,” Rawlings told Sportsday. 

“Jack’s recovery’s been terrific, and it just goes to show the professional attitude that he’s got that through the stand-down period he could actually accelerate his program and get back to a level where he gets back to training, and back with the full group”

Ziebell had already overcome a calf injury to get himself ready for round one, before an opposition player fell across his leg in the third term.

It’s likely he would have missed at least six to eight matches if not for the hiatus.

“He’s probably in better shape in this period than he was leading into round one,” Rawlings said.

“His attitude to get better and do everything right and give himself the best opportunity to return from what was quite a significant injury, has been really pleasing.”

There’s good news for Majak Daw too; the 29-year-old avoiding surgery on his torn pectoral muscle, and already on the comeback trail.

“He’s (Daw) in the gym this afternoon (Monday). He’ll do some running tomorrow (Tuesday),” Rawlings added.

“We’ll ramp up his conditioning over the next week or so, depending on his range-of-movement with his arm swing.

“We can keep him fit. We know it’s just that part of his body (pectoral) that needs to regain strength. He’s not going to lose any strength in the rest of the body.”