NORTH Melbourne has addressed its injury crisis but football boss Brady Rawlings stopped short on Friday of announcing the Kangaroos would undergo a review of the situation.

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They have lost a competition-most 73 games to injury overall this season, including 51 from players considered to be in the club's best 22, and could record a sixth straight loss this weekend.

"Clearly, we're not happy with our availability level at the moment," Rawlings said.

"To be able to compete in this competition against some of the best sides, you need the best players out there and we haven't been able to do that consistently.

"There are things we're putting in place at the moment to get us through the rest of this season and get availability up as high as possible.

"We're not happy with where we're at and we'll be doing some things about it."  

In a timely boost, North named Nick Larkey (foot), Luke Davies-Uniacke (groin), Cam Zurhaar (calf) and Jed Anderson (quad) on Thursday night to return against Carlton on Saturday.

Midfielder Jy Simpkin (ankle) is also fit to play after a light week that included him skipping training on Wednesday, while Kyron Hayden (concussion) is on track as well.

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However, Ben Cunnington remains without a timeframe to return from his back injury, which has led to some weakening of his quad muscles, while captain Jack Ziebell (hamstring) is out for a month.

Rawlings said they were "really comfortable" with how they handled Ziebell's preparation in the two weeks between his previous hamstring injury and the one he suffered on Saturday night.

Kayne Turner is also out indefinitely again because of "awareness" in the medial sesamoid fracture under his left big toe that sidelined him for the first half of this year.

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The Roos' brightest young talent, Tarryn Thomas, underwent season-ending surgery on Thursday after suffering a syndesmosis setback a fortnight ago.

Coach Rhyce Shaw said the injuries made it "really difficult" because they couldn't consistently get their best players on the field but he didn't want them to be an excuse for the poor form.

"I won't go into specifics about selection but obviously with the injuries our hands are tied a little bit with (being able to make unforced changes)," Shaw said.

"It's hard when you've got so many but we're confident when we run out on the field we'll give our best and play the style of footy we want to and we just haven't done that.

"We've got to own that but we've also got to do something about it."

Unlike Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin, who said on Thursday the Demons won't rest players in the upcoming compressed fixture, North Melbourne will make changes each game to cope.

The Kangaroos have consecutive four-day breaks after their rounds nine and 10 matches.

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Shaw also addressed perennial Coleman Medal contender Ben Brown's underwhelming form, saying Larkey's return would help but that "Ben's owning his performances".

The second-year coach said he had more important priorities than the trade speculation swarming around Brown, who remains out of contract.