AMERICAN Eric Wallace has started a 10-day trial at North Melbourne as the club weighs up whether to sign the former basketballer as an international rookie.

Wallace, who turns 24 on Thursday, started training on Monday with the Kangaroos after being one of 10 international athletes to attend and test at October's NAB AFL Draft Combine.

There he caught the eye of the Kangaroos with his athletic ability. The 196cm and 102kg product recorded an 80cm standing vertical jump (in the top 3 per cent of results) and ran 2.90 seconds in the 20m sprint.

The club will use the next week-and-a-half to assess Wallace's character before making a final decision before its Christmas break.

"Eric's got some terrific athletic potential with his size, power, speed and agility, all those things are fantastic," North coach Brad Scott told AFL.com.au on Monday.

"The primary thing we are looking for is we really just want to see Eric as a person.

"We saw Eric at the Combine and we're right across his athletic testing, but really we just want to get to know him personally so we can make an assessment as to whether he's going to fit the mould of our group and the culture of our club.

"He can have all the athletic potential in the world but we've got to make sure he's a rock solid person. From all our background checks, and the way he's conducted himself so far, he appears first class in that area."

Scott said Wallace had moved well in drills on Monday, but admitted he had some way to go on his foot disposal.

The club will also nominally find a possible position for Wallace before making its call.

"We're really looking to find a position that really suits him, and we haven't come to that conclusion as yet," Scott said.

"We've got to make some more assessments on his endurance and how he sees the game. It's generally accepted most guys who haven't played a lot of footy learn better playing in the back half of the ground.

"But he has terrific hand-eye coordination from what I saw today, so I think he looks to me to has potential to play forward."

There is no deadline for clubs to recruit international rookies. Richmond signed its first international rookie in October, with Papua New Guinea's Gideon Simon joining the club.