North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has admitted he instigated a self-imposed quarantine after being floored by illness in the lead up to the club’s match against West Coast on Friday night.

Scott was absent for his weekly media conference and the Roos were forced to wheel out assistant coaches Darren Crocker, Brett Allison and Shane Watson in his place.

Instead of travelling with the team on Wednesday, Scott elected to fly alone on Thursday morning to reduce the risk of infecting players.

“I hate to sound callous, but when it’s an off-field staff member you don’t really worry too much, but risking infection for players is pretty crucial,” he told NMFC.com.au after training in Perth.

“So whether it’s the head coach or the boot studder we quarantine anyone who is sick… that includes me.”

Despite media reports which suggested he could miss the match, Scott says there was never any danger of him being unable to coach.

“It’s not a big deal really. I just woke up Monday night pretty uncontrollably sick. I didn’t get any sleep that night and was pretty crook for 24 hours, but now I’m fine.”

In Round 6, Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was unable to take his position in the coaches box in Hobart and had to hand over the reins to Alan Richardson.

For North, Darren Crocker would have been the man to take charge had Scott been unavailable.

“It was never serious. I didn’t even need to see a doctor or anything. Whether it’s gastro, food poisoning, whatever it is the symptoms are the same.”