Young midfielder George Wardlaw will look to prove his fitness later in the week, while a shoulder injury has ruled Cooper Harvey out for the rest of the season.

Wardlaw was subbed out of the Round 18 clash against Hawthorn prematurely after straining his hamstring in a tackling effort during the second term, and has been sidelined since.

North Melbourne head of performance Kevin White says he's now "tracking well" after being exposed to a main group training session last Thursday.

"George absorbed a footy conditioning session over the weekend and will freshen up in the early part of this week to put him in the best position for game availability this weekend," White told NMFC Media.

As for Harvey, his rookie season has finished early after going under the knife earlier this week.

"Cooper had a couple of minor subluxation (partial dislocation) incidents over the past two weeks which led to some follow-up investigation imaging which showed chronic changes to the shoulder joint," White detailed.

"Given the ease of these incidents occurring and the imaging assessments by club doctors and surgical experts, the club put Cooper in for shoulder surgery which successfully took place Monday.

"This will give Cooper greater stability to that structure when he recovers and will enable him to get a strong base of running conditioning in across early pre-season."

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Tom Powell was again troubled by his left leg after making his return via the VFL on Saturday. He left the field at ETU Stadium early in the third quarter but will test heading into this weekend.

"After progressing well over the past two weeks dealing with his ITB irritation, Tom had difficulty with higher-end running during the VFL game," White said.

"He has settled well over the past two days and will look to re-load through training once again this week to allow continuity of loading and strength."

Veteran Liam Shiels is eyeing down a Round 23 return as he continues to recover from a calf injury.

Shiels hasn’t featured since Round 19 against St Kilda but is on the brink of reintegrating back into the main group.

"Liam is progressing as expected with building up his strength and running capacity across the past 10 days," White said.

"There are a few strength markers he will look to tick off later this week that will then allow him to run fast and enter football conditioning over the weekend."

Defenders Aiden Bonar and Flynn Perez both made successful returns from their respective knee injuries in the reserves, playing the full game on increased rotations.

The duo has "pulled up well across the past 48 hours" and will push for senior selection through the week.