ADAM Simpson and Daniel Pratt are the only North Melbourne players to have delayed starts to their pre-seasons, requiring extra time to recover from respective shoulder operations.

Former captain Simpson was hampered in the later stages of the 2008 campaign, but confirmed last week that the joint had not required a reconstruction.

Defender Pratt's shoulder surgery was inevitable after he landed heavily against Geelong in round 11, later comparing its instability to the cases of Sydney Swan Tadhg Kennelly and Adelaide's Jason Porplyzia, though his dislocations weren't as regular.

Chief of football Donald McDonald confirmed that the squad otherwise has a clean bill of health.

"We've only got a couple of guys in our rehab, so that's a really pleasing sign," he said.

"There's [another] couple of blokes who've got a few little maintenance issues but, aside from that, it's all systems go."

North commenced pre-season training last Monday with a 3.2km time trial ahead of two other weekday sessions, and a fitness and conditioning assessment on Saturday.

It continued in earnest this week.

All players have been involved to varying levels, though the five that represented Australia in last month's International Rules Series – Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito, Daniel Wells and Matt Campbell – have had a less strenuous program.

"They've started out pretty well, but we're always cautious to make any big predictions," McDonald said of the squad, adding that it was too early to determine which players had started best.

"All you can do is hope that they continue to improve.

"Paul Turk, our conditioning coach, has been happy with the way they've come back from their break. There's an enormous amount of work ahead of them and only time will tell how much they've improved.

"Physically, we might be getting all of the right indicators but it's going to be more until we start playing that we see how they're really travelling.

"[But] so far, so good."