Rhyce Shaw says Jack Ziebell re-injuring his hamstring on Saturday night was just "bad luck" after North Melbourne took a conservative approach in bringing its captain back.

Ziebell limped off Metricon Stadium late in the first quarter of the 54-point loss against Richmond and did not return.

The skipper was playing his first game after suffering a similar injury in the round four match against Hawthorn, but Shaw said Ziebell was not rushed back.

"I thought we did a really good job in bringing Jack back," Shaw said.

"He was pretty much right to go last week but we took the cautious route and it's ended up like this. It’s a bit of bad luck for Jack."

Ziebell's injury comes two weeks after star midfielder Ben Cunnington also failed to get through his first match back.

Cunnington hurt his back in round two, was rested for two weeks, and then battled to play three quarters against the Western Bulldogs before succumbing.

"We are assessing all the time and I thought we did a really good job after the Ben Cunnington incident," Shaw said.

"Again, I’ll take responsibility for that and I thought we learned a lot from that.

"We went forward, and I think the Jack scenario is a bit of bad luck to be honest."

It was an ugly night for the Kangaroos, who lost Cam Zurhaar (calf) before the match and youngster Kyron Hayden in the third quarter after he was on the wrong end of a heavy collision with Tiger Tom Lynch.

To make things even worse, they kicked just two goals for the night after recording just one inside 50 in the first quarter.

"This is AFL footy, so you just can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater," Shaw said.

"We’ve got to actually take these opportunities and find out who wants to take them and who doesn’t, and at the moment we probably just don’t have enough blokes rowing the boat."