Ben Cunnington faces a vital fortnight in his recovery from a back injury, as he looks to return for his first game since round five.

North GM Football Brady Rawlings said Cunnington’s progress hadn’t been as fast as expected, and it was difficult to put a timeline on the injury.

“The last couple of weeks we were sort of hoping his leg strength would get back to 90 or 100 per cent strength, but we just haven’t quite been able to get that strength back at the moment,” Rawlings told ABC Grandstand.

“The back issue has become more a neural issue, which goes into the quad and his quad muscles just aren’t firing up to the level we need them to.

“When that doesn’t occur, he puts strain on the rest of his muscles, being the hip-flexor in particular.

“It’s all about him regaining strength, and we can’t train him until we get him to those strength measures.”

Rawlings admitted Cunnington realistically may not play again this season, but was hopeful the 2019 Syd Barker Medallist would start to take significant positive strides, sooner rather than later.

“It’s been a bit of a long process the last few weeks, and we just haven’t quite seen the level of improvement to get him back to full training yet,” he added.

“The next week or two we’ll keep him endeavouring him to do so, and the longer he goes obviously makes it harder for him to come back, given he’ll need time to prepare fully with training. 

“100% it's a possibility (he won’t return in 2020). It's a possibility he might be back in a couple of weeks as well ... (but) the longer it goes, then the more preparation time he'll need to get back to playing, so the next week or two are big for Ben.”