UTILITY Alan Obst has his sights set on a return to the North Melbourne line-up - and a place on the club's senior list - after finally overcoming a right quad tear that sidelined him for four months.

Obst played around 60 per cent of a reserves match for VFL affiliate Werribee last weekend, and has been selected in the Tigers' senior side for its clash with Sandringham on Sunday.

When scans soon after Christmas revealed a recurrence of the injury he had suffered five weeks earlier, playing at any level seemed a distant prospect for the 22-year-old.

"It was a bullseye lesion - right in the middle of the muscle - which isn't a great spot for a tear," Obst said.

"After that, Con (club doctor Con Mitropoulos) told me it was going to be a [two-month] injury.

"That's when I thought, 'I have to look forward, take one week a time', but it was pretty shattering to get that news that I was going to be out for a couple of months.

"I think all up I was out for about 17 weeks. No one expected it to be that long from the get-go, so it was very frustrating."

Obst played as a tall defender in North's end-of-season victories over St Kilda and Port Adelaide, rewarding him for the efforts that would eventually earn him runner-up in Werribee's best and fairest count.

But having made his first AFL appearance since round 14, 2008, he was heartened by the faith of his coaches and the opportunities available to him ahead of his third year on the club's rookie list.

The South Australian was further buoyed by his solid start to pre-season training but, by late November, was confined to the gymnasium as his teammates found another gear in their preparations.

"Ben Cunnington was in rehab with me for a fair while with his foot, which helped me through, but it was pretty lonely by myself," he said.

Having initially torn the quad in a 20m group sprint test, Obst returned to training from an overseas holiday only to reinjure himself with his first kick of a football.

"He had a flare-up of that original tear of his quad," Mitropoulos said, adding that another unrelated hot spot appeared in the muscle after Obst tripped on a sprinkler in February.

"We did monthly scans to see it was improving. My logic for doing that - not that it was entirely necessary - was just to confirm in his mind [when] he's ready to start kicking.

"They (bullseye lesions) are significant tears. They're the ones you don't want to have, and take three months or so to come good. You can't hurry them up.

"They have a fair chance of recurrence as well ... so we were very conservative with it."

Hours that would have gone into Obst's legs on the track were instead dedicated to upper body and core strength, which in hindsight has paid significant dividends.

Recently graduating to seven reps of 110kg on the bench press, he has added considerable size to his frame, but knows that building match fitness is now his priority.

"It's been a very up-and-down journey, but I just feel that this year might be the turning year for me and hopefully I can play some good senior footy and get on the senior list for next year," Obst said.

Obst spent a season on Adelaide's senior list and a year with SANFL club Central District before joining North at the end of 2007.

An AFL rule introduced last year allows clubs to nominate a rookie-listed player for senior selection from round 11.