North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson is hoping emerging midfielder George Wardlaw “gathers more awareness” around how he attacks the football to help prevent concussion problems.
Wardlaw is fresh off his third bout of concussion in the past 12 months after a collision with Hawthorn’s Conor Nash has ruled him out of Thursday’s contest against the Western Bulldogs.
Clarkson revealed that the 21-year-old is in good spirits and was running laps at Arden Street on Tuesday.
However, the Kangaroos coach stopped short of instructing Wardlaw to change his mannerisms in the contest.
“He’s been asked this question plenty of times. What do you change with him? He’s habitual, it’s the way he plays his footy,” Clarkson said.
“You just hope over time he gathers a bit more awareness, a little bit more luck, a bit stronger in his body, perhaps.
“I try to take the beast out of the way that he plays, and you won’t have the same George Wardlaw.
“That’s the risk we all have when we play the game, hope he gets a good run of luck.”
Wardlaw will be joined by Jack Darling on the sidelines after he suffered a groin injury, and will miss at least one week, according to the club.
A watch will be on Harry Sheezel (shoulder), Luke Parker (soreness), Luke McDonald (shoulder), Josh Goater (quad), Charlie Comben (shoulder), Jackson Archer (hamstring) and Eddie Ford (foot).
“We’ve got a whole heap of guys because it’s such a short break, we trained today, and most of those guys were able to do something,” Clarkson said.
“It’s just getting them moving a bit, we’ll train tomorrow and then select our side tomorrow night.
“(Parker) is one of those guys that we need to test tomorrow, some of them didn’t come out on the track at all today, or they did very, very light duties on the side.
“They’ll present tomorrow with another 24 hours of recovery (and) see how we go. We’ll have a couple of certainties out … George and Jack Darling.
“We’ll test a couple others tomorrow, see how they pull up, and if they’re no good, we’ll just go in with fresh guys.”
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