NORTH Melbourne's Scott McMahon won't face Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Sunday with the defender to remain in Melbourne to be on hand in case his first child makes an early arrival.
The 25-year-old's wife Desiree is close to giving birth, and owing to the nature of her pregnancy, could deliver the baby on short notice.
Coach Brad Scott said the Kangaroos weren't prepared to take the backman interstate when there was a chance he could be required at home this weekend.
"His wife is due to give birth in the next few weeks and there is a small chance that she might require an emergency caesarean section," he said on Thursday.
"My view is that even though it's a small percentage chance, it will occupy 100 per cent of Scott's thinking while we're over in Adelaide.
"If his mind's not going to be on the job where it needs to be, and it should rightly be with his wife, we've made the call we're not going to take him this week and he can stay home with his wife and be sure that if anything happens, he's going to be there."
McMahon trained on Thursday and Scott said he would have played had the game been in Melbourne.
The Kangaroos have plenty of decisions to make regarding selection with a host of players including Lachie Hansen, Daniel Pratt, Cam Richardson, Cruize Garlett, Ben Warren and Ben McKinley in the mix.
Scott said he had the "best tool in my armoury" as a coach with the number of players available.
"Players will either perform or other players in the VFL will go past them," he said.
"We've had some really selection headaches the past three weeks now and that's only starting to continue."
Hansen hasn't played since round 12 after suffering concussion but trained on Thursday and is ready to resume.
"He's fine. In terms of all the concussion testing, he's 100 per cent," he said.
"Some of the residual effects you can have from concussion are shoulder and neck issues as well.
"It's matter of determining whether the headache-type symptom is coming from shoulder and neck pain or is it from the actual concussion?
"All our scans and tests suggest he's okay and ready to resume."
However, while the Roos will name ruckman Todd Goldstein, Scott admitted he was not confident the big man would take his place in the side as he battled to come up from the rolled ankle he sustained last week against Essendon.
"He needs to prove he's very, very close," he said.
"Being a Sunday game, we'll certainly name him in the side and take him to Adelaide and give him right up until the last minute because he's very important to us."
Hamish McIntosh will resume in the VFL on the weekend and will play 75 per cent of his game time in the forward line as he builds his match fitness.
Scott said there was no chance the 26-year-old would be considered to come into the senior side without at least a few weeks of football behind him.
"We'll pick a side that can cover the loss of 'Goldy' if he doesn't come up," he said.
"Pederson has shouldered the ruck load before and Drew Petrie is a very competent ruckman."
Scott said there wasn't much the Roos could take from their round six 60-point win over Port Adelaide as Matthew Primus didn't have players such as Dominic Cassisi, Travis Boak, Jay Schulz or Danyle Pearce at his disposal.
However, he said his players were fired up to extend their three-game winning streak and wouldn't take the Power - who are 16th on the ladder with two wins - lightly.
"It's a really important game for us. We're five-seven so we're really striving to get back to evening up the ledger and this is another step towards that," he said.
"We're really conscious the Power have been really competitive for parts of games this year and we have to expect a really good four quarter effort from them because we know their best is very good."