Shaun Higgins remains on track to play in round one, and possibly another practice match, despite requiring a minor knee procedure.

The star medium-sized forward reported low-level pain in his left knee late in North’s NAB Challenge win over St Kilda on Saturday.

“It’s a very straightforward and minor wash-out that he requires,” North Director of Football Geoff Walsh said.

“There were a couple of old bone fragments, which had been there for a number of years, that suddenly caused him some discomfort in the second half.

“We sent him off for assessment and the advice was to wash the knee out and set him up for the season proper. This will ensure he doesn’t have any further issues with those fragments.”

Walsh said Higgins has had a stellar pre-season and is tracking well ahead of the same time last year.

“The window we have now is perfect in that we’d planned to give Shaun the next NAB Challenge game off anyway, and his surgeon is optimistic that he could return for our final practice match,” Walsh said.

“However, we may choose to hold him back from that, depending on his requirements from a strength and conditioning point of view. Regardless of which path we take, he will be ready for round one, which is obviously the main aim.”

Meanwhile small-forward Kayne Turner has been cleared of any issues following on from the weekend.

“Kayne felt some tightness in his hamstring early in the match and while he could have continued playing, we didn’t want to take any risks. The scans have come back all clear and we expect him to play in two weeks’ time.”