INJURED North Melbourne defender Jess Sinclair will this weekend move a step closer to returning to the AFL by playing for the club's VFL affiliate Werribee on Sunday.

Sinclair injured his right thumb in a practice match against Fremantle at Subiaco last month.

After undergoing surgery to re-attach ligaments in his thumb, Sinclair was aiming to make a return to the senior side for Saturday's clash against Melbourne at the MCG.

But the club wants him to regain his touch playing in the VFL, and he will run out for Werribee against the Bendigo Bombers.

"He's obviously missed a lot of footy so if you're a betting man he would probably come through the VFL," North Melbourne assistant coach John Lamont said.

"He's done just about every session in terms of running around and shadowing a player but he hasn't been able to touch the footy and obviously he's a midfielder type, touch and clean hands and releasing the ball is pretty integral to his game.

"And the bash and crash and physical side of it, he hasn't had any of that stuff either."

But the Kangaroos will be forced to make at least one change for the clash with Melbourne, with big man David Hale expected to miss two games with a severe corked quad.

With such an even competition this year, Lamont said the club could ill-afford to have only one win after four rounds.

And he said the Roos would be wary of the beleaguered Demons which lost their first two matches by a collective 199 points before going down to Geelong by five goals last Sunday.

"We can't afford to take them lightly," Lamont said.

"They've obviously regrouped, put in a good performance against Geelong at Geelong, which is no easy task.

"We can't afford to have (David) Neitz and (Russell) Robertson get a good look at the ball, and we can't afford for (Cameron) Bruce and (Brad) Green to get a lot of uncontested ball.

"There's no easy games now - it's so close the competition - we just to make sure we're right on our game and play four quarters of footy."