North Melbourne spearhead Jarrad Waite could return from his long injury lay-off against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday, while the Roos' finals bid has received another huge boost with influential midfielder Ben Jacobs now expected to play again this year, possibly as soon as next round.

Waite has been sidelined with a lingering calf injury since the Kangaroos' round 10 win over Fremantle, but the veteran had been in sparkling form before that, opening the season with 22 goals in nine games.  

North coach Brad Scott told reporters on Wednesday Waite appeared ready to play against the Lions, but said a final call would be made later this week.  

"He's probably been ready for a little while. Again, we said right from the outset that we would be very conservative with his rehabilitation and he's trained well and we've just got to decide when we're comfortable pulling the trigger," Scott said.  

"Clearly that's got to come at some point. Whether it's this week or next week, we'll sit down and have that discussion post training."  

"Even when I coached against Jarrad there was no better player fresh off a break. I think we experienced that at North a couple of times when he was playing for Carlton.

"We don't have too many concerns about his ability to come in and play good footy, we've just got to make sure that he's durable and resilient."

Jacobs has been battling concussion symptoms since North's round 12 loss to Geelong, having played just once since then and been a late withdrawal from the Roos' selected team three times.

The Roos decided last week to restrict the run-with midfielder's training until his concussion symptoms had completely subsided, and could not say when he would return.

However, on Wednesday Scott said Jacobs, who blanketed opposition stars such as Dustin Martin, Patrick Cripps, Tom Mitchell and Clayton Oliver in the first half of the season, was "feeling much better" this week and could return as early as North's round 21 clash against the Western Bulldogs.

"He'll need to build up before he plays, but we've got a pretty strong feeling that he's turned the corner and that he's not too far away," Scott said.

"Unfortunately, we can't put an absolute timeframe on it, other than to say we expect him back this year.

"He hasn't done much so far this week. I think he'll be doubtful for this week, but we'll be pushing for next week or the week after."

The Roos coach was "really confident" Shaun Higgins would miss just one week after undergoing minor knee surgery on Monday night, saying the star midfielder had resumed light training on Wednesday morning with a session on a stationary bike.

Meanwhile, Jack Ziebell has been working on his goalkicking routine with Roos spearhead Ben Brown in an attempt to iron out some kinks in his set shots.

Ziebell, 188cm, has been a revelation in attack this season after moving from the midfield, with his single-minded attack on the ball and strength overhead giving North's forward line another dimension.

However, the captain is keen to improve on his 28.26 return in front of goal. 

"I'm not sure that the routine is going to stretch out too far," Scott joked of Ziebell's work with Brown, who boasts the longest run-up in the game.

"I think Jack likes to keep it fairly succinct, but if he could kick more like 45 of those shots that he's had, I think he'll do just about anything.

"But he's a beautiful kick. I'm never too concerned about guys who are technically very good kicks if they're missing, because it's just a matter of time and making sure their routine is sound."