NORTH Melbourne will not move captain Brent Harvey to its long-term injury list for fear he may better his scheduled eight to 10-week rehabilitation time.

Cruize Garlett (North Ballarat) and Alan Obst (Werribee) have found strong form at VFL level and would be the front-runners to replace him, but after round 11 clubs can elevate a rookie-listed player for senior selection anyway.

And North is particularly mindful that a player transferred to a long-term injury list must spend eight weeks on it.

Harvey had elbow surgery after dislocating the joint against Richmond in round five and chief of football Donald McDonald said his early progress suggested he could return sooner than expected.

"The way he's training and the way he's running, there could be the possibility he might come back earlier," he told kangaroos.com.au.

"We couldn't contemplate putting a rookie up and waiting for him to finish his eight weeks."

North could regain midfielders Daniel Wells (hip) and Brady Rawlings (calf) and draftee Jack Ziebell (thigh) for Saturday's clash with Fremantle, however, McDonald said they all needed to get through training on Wednesday.

"One of the philosophies we're trying is to ensure that blokes can complete training before they're right to play," he said.

"The good thing is that it's positive at this stage."

Wells and Rawlings, late withdrawals from the side that lost to Geelong, failed to get through training last week while Ziebell pulled up sore from the main session.

Small forward Matt Campbell (hamstring) and defender Daniel Pratt (knee) remain as long as a fortnight away from being available, with Pratt still carrying a limp after having arthroscopic surgery ahead of round seven.

"The worry was always going to be the medial tear and how quickly that heals," McDonald said. "We've just got to see how long that takes to come good.

"That will be the thing holding his return back. Some guys are just better healers than others."

Key position player Lachlan Hansen (hamstring) continues to make significant ground in his recovery and late last week jogged freely and moved well during an individual skills session.

"Originally they thought it was a severe tear and because it was his first tear, we were going into the unknown," McDonald said.

"We're not going to take any risks with him."

McDonald added that first-year midfielder Liam Anthony (foot stress fracture) needed to train this week with a view to return through the VFL in a fortnight, while forward Robbie Tarrant (leg soreness) was yet to reach that stage.

Midfielder Leigh Adams, who had 19 touches for Werribee on the weekend, will have his ongoing knee soreness assessed by club doctor Con Mitropoulos.

Adams, 21, had a knee reconstruction early last year and missed the whole season.

Meanwhile, North will train at Visy Park on Wednesday to counter the hard Arden Street surface affected by low rain and poor irrigation.

Arden Street underwent similar testing to that performed on AFL grounds last week and inconsistencies were found between its hard and soft patches.

"We actually got the ground aerated today (Tuesday) so we'll put our water on it and it should be right to train on Friday," McDonald said.

"I think if you compared our ground with any metropolitan ground, it would be a magnificent surface. It's just the climate at the minute."

McDonald added that the club had to ensure the hardness of the ground didn't have an impact on player soreness.