Trent Dumont is in line for a return at VFL level against Casey on Thursday night, as he continues his comeback from a calf issue.

Dumont has not been sighted on the playing field for North Melbourne this year, with the calf problem keeping him sidelined since the pre-season.

“We could have played Trent on Saturday in the VFL, but we then felt it wouldn’t be ideal for his preparation to have to back up again on a Thursday,” Rawlings told North Media.

“We elected to train him through a really solid session last weekend to prepare him for this Thursday’s VFL game.

“He’ll get a really good recovery period after that game as well. He’ll play with some increased rotations on Thursday night, for our VFL side.”

Aaron Hall will look to tick off another milestone in his recovery from concussion, as he trains with the VFL side.

“Aaron has pulled up really well, he’s ticked all the boxes so far in terms of what he needs to go through from a concussion point-of-view,” Rawlings said.

“He’s training with the VFL side this afternoon (Tuesday) and that counts as one of the main sessions he needs to tick off before he’s available for selection.

“Pending him getting through that session, he’ll hopefully reintegrate into the rest of us when we get out of quarantine.”

Aidan Corr is still some time away from a return according to Rawlings, who says the nature of the defender’s toe infection means caution must be taken.

“We’re still not in a position where we can load him up yet, as the infection is still settling,” he said.

“There will certainly be a loading component before he’s ready … it’ll probably be another week or two before we can get some clarity on when his return to playing is likely.”

Kyron Hayden will be missing from action for a number of weeks as he recovers from a hamstring injury, suffered in Round 5 against Geelong.

Rawlings says due to the fact Hayden has injured this hamstring before, the club will take a cautious approach before bringing him back.

“We need to be a little bit more conservative in the approach with his rehab and we’ll take a little bit longer to get in a position where he can return to play given he’s now done it twice … he’ll still be three to four weeks away,” he said.

“He’s running and had a reasonable session today (Tuesday). Not any speed or changing of direction obviously, but we’re starting to get a bit of running volume into him.”

Phoenix Spicer ended last week’s VFL game on crutches, due to a hamstring injury suffered before half time.

Rawlings says the nature of the quarantine period the club has been placed in means it is difficult to place a time frame on his return.

“The main issue at the moment is we’ve got two separate programs, given we’re still in quarantine, so our three physios are in the AFL program from the weekend and won’t get eyes on him until we’re out of quarantine,” he said.

“We can’t really put a time on his return until our own physios can assess him really well.

“Like all our young players, we want to make sure we’re really conservative with his injury management. He’s done his hammy and we’ll still assess throughout this week.”

Matt McGuinness is another player who suffered an injury in last weekend’s VFL clash with Frankston.

Rawlings says McGuinness has suffered a mid foot sprain, however much like Spicer, the timeframe of his absence cannot be confirmed yet.