Daniel Wells will be in unfamiliar territory this weekend as he continues to build his fitness after spending the majority of the year on the sidelines with an Achilles injury.

The 30-year-old will have to line up in the VFL Development League with Werribee on Saturday because North Ballarat has a bye.

“The VFL rules don’t allow him to play in the Werribee senior game,” North Director of Football Geoff Walsh explained.

“North Ballarat doesn’t have a development team so this was the only option.”

Wells played a little over a quarter of football for the Roosters in Saturday’s win over Collingwood at Victoria Park but will need a lot more conditioning if he’s to return to the AFL before the end of the season.

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“We obviously need to get him some more match fitness and made an application to allow him to play in the VFL Development League which was granted last week,” Walsh added.

“It’s more about getting another game under his belt at any level really so we can get some more run into him. He’ll just be keen to have another run having played a quarter or so on Saturday.”

Wells collected 14 disposals in his first game back since Round 2 but sent a scare through the North Melbourne camp when he hobbled from the field.

“He had a bit of a knock to his knee but that doesn’t seem to be a real major issue,” Walsh said.

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“It was good for him to get out there and my understanding at this stage is that his Achilles has pulled up well. So he got through and will look to ramp things up again this week.”

The Werribee Development League match will be played at 11am in Williamstown as a curtain raiser to the senior game which begins at 2pm.