North Melbourne pair Kayne Turner and Luke Davis Uniacke will both miss the start of the season after both suffering injury setbacks in the past week.
Following North's loss to the Western Bulldogs in the opening week of the Marsh Community Series, Turner pulled up sore as scans undertaken on the following Monday revealed he'd sustained a fractured bone in his foot.
“We sent him off for scans the following Monday which revealed he’d sustained a medial sesamoid fracture in the ball of his foot, under his left big toe,”. North Melbourne general manager of football Brady Rawlings told the club website.
"We feel that a conservative rehabilitation approach is the best course of action for now to let the bone heal."
"Because of the nature of the injury, we hope to see Kayne just after the bye in June."
Young gun Luke Davis-Uniacke has also been sidelined with what Rawlings describes as a 'public overload' issue.
"Luke’s been battling a pubic overload issue, it’s extremely disappointing because fitness-wise he was setting himself up for a big year."
"We all know what ‘LDU’ is capable of so we’ll put him in a rehabilitation program to build him back up to full strength when the time is right."
Due to the 20-year olds' age, North has decided to take a conservative approach for Davis-Uniacke's recovery.
"We’ve decided to take an aggressive off-load approach with Luke given his age."
"When he’s clinically ‘all-clear’, we will re-load him conservatively and start him on a running program," Rawlings said.
North Melbourne face St Kilda in Round one at Marvel Stadium on Sunday March 22.