MASON Wood is well placed to build on his promising 2016 form, having fully recovered from the "freak" knee injury that prematurely ended his season.

Wood emerged as one of North Melbourne's most exciting young prospects last season.

In his fourth year on the Kangaroos' list, Wood forced his way into the senior side with outstanding VFL form and looked right at home in eight games, particularly after returning in round 11 against Richmond following two weeks on the sidelines with concussion.

The Tigers clash was the first of five consecutive games for Wood and he made the most of his extended opportunity at senior level.

The 192cm forward kicked eight goals in that stretch, with his elite endurance allowing him to work hard up the ground and his strength overhead making him a difficult match-up close to goal. 

Most impressively, Wood had 20 possessions, two goals and three marks inside 50 against reigning premier Hawthorn in round 13, although he also missed three shots on goal that proved costly in North's nine-point loss. 

Just two games later, Wood's season ended when he tore his left medial ligament off the bone and damaged the surrounding meniscus after an Eagles player fell across his leg in a tackle. 

Wood told SEN on Wednesday the injury had been "a freak accident", with North's medical team advising him the contact to his knee would not normally have caused such extensive damage.

The former Geelong Falcon came close to returning late in 2016 but decided to take a conservative approach to set himself up for a strong 2017 pre-season.

Having returned to training before the rest of North's group and experienced no real hiccups, Wood is confident his knee is again structurally sound. 

"The medial is rock solid and I haven't had any issues to this point, so it's probably good that I was able to get through to the end of the season and not try particularly hard to push to get back," Wood said.

"(I was able) to make sure that it was ready and locked to go for 2017." 

Wood said playing a string of consecutive games was critical to his encouraging 2016 form as it allowed him to find his feet in what had largely been a settled North forward line.

In 2015 and the first half of last season, North's attack was mostly built around talls Drew Petrie, Jarrad Waite and Ben Brown.

Wood played as a fourth tall in his first five games last year, but was part of a more traditional three-pronged set-up in rounds 14-16 when Waite was out with a hip injury. 

The 23-year-old enjoyed the opportunity of "playing that little bit smaller" alongside Petrie, Waite and Brown, but believed the Roos were most likely to take three tall forwards into their round one clash with West Coast. 

"It's as competitive as it's been (in my time at the club) for spots in the forward line, so it's going to be very, very interesting which way [North's match committee] is going to go," Wood said. 

"I'm thinking three talls and three smalls, plus one coming off the bench, plus blokes running through the midfield as well.

"That's what we went with in the past, that's what I feel like worked the best."