Forward Matt Campbell (hamstring), defenders Daniel Pratt (knee) and Lachlan Hansen (hamstring) and first-year onballer Liam Anthony (foot) are pressing to return to football this weekend, though Pratt and Anthony are only outside chances.
Chief of football Donald McDonald suggested Campbell was best placed to be selected for Saturday's clash with the Brisbane Lions, provided he completed the week.
After injuring a hamstring against Essendon in round four, Campbell returned against Port Adelaide three weeks later only to strain the muscle in his other leg.
"As it stands at the minute, they've (Campbell and Hansen) completed a fair bit of training but they've still got to finish it off," McDonald told kangaroos.com.au.
"It's probably going to be up to Dean (Laidley) and the match committee where they play."
Hansen, 20, looks likely to return through Werribee and McDonald reiterated the club would not take any chances with him.
Pratt, who damaged cartilage and tore his medial ligament against Collingwood in round six, continues to improve but needs to train very well in the coming days to be picked.
Set for a round one debut until stress fractures were found in his foot, Anthony will near that territory again with VFL selection this week or next.
McDonald said Anthony had recovered from the fracture and was focused on his conditioning.
"It's more that we don't want him to do a soft tissue injury," he said. "We need him to have that really good, solid base under his belt.
"The next two sessions will tell the tale of Liam as well."
Momentum is building again for key position prospect Robbie Tarrant, who should play in the VFL next weekend.
Initially stalled by a stress fracture in his knee, Tarrant then struggled with muscle soreness but has since resumed training.
"We just want him to complete another week's full training," McDonald said. "He's just one of those ones where we're really mindful of his body."
Midfielder Leigh Adams had arthroscopic surgery on his troublesome knee last Tuesday and will be sidelined for another fortnight.
Adams and Nathan Grima missed last year with knee reconstructions, however, Adams experienced some recent soreness while playing with Werribee.
"It's just a little bit of a hangover from his reconstruction last year," McDonald said. "(Doctor) Con (Mitropoulos) got the surgeon to look at him and the surgeon decided that he needed a little bit of a clean-up in his knee."
Captain Brent Harvey (dislocated elbow) is only wearing his brace to train, which McDonald said was a precautionary measure in case he got bumped.
The Syd Barker Medallist is confident of slashing time from his scheduled return date – round 17 – and will meet with his specialist again in three weeks.
"If the specialist says it's healed all right, then he'll only be a week or two after that," McDonald said.
McDonald added that luckless half-back Jesse Smith (hamstring) was still listed as indefinite purely because the club wanted to avoid a timeframe on his progress.
Smith, one of North's most talented players, has started his second week of training with the main group.
"Now it's just a matter of how much he can get through," McDonald said.
"Once he does all that, we'll play him. We don't want to put a figure on it in terms of weeks but you'd think that after the break, he'll definitely be considered."
