North Melbourne forward Ben Brown has been ruled out of Monday night's clash against Collingwood.

Brown has missed the past two matches with a knee injury and will be unavailable again with some swelling.

"He's (Brown) not going to be considered to play, despite him running at the moment and looking OK," Kangaroos general manager of football Brady Rawlings said on Sunday.

North Melbourne coach Rhyce Shaw played his cards close to his chest in regards to whether he would recall veterans Jared Polec, Jasper Pittard and Aaron Hall after all three were omitted last week.

Polec has now been dropped twice in August after being brought across from Port Adelaide in a high-profile move at the end of 2018.

"I'm not going to talk about Jared's future or anyone else's future," Shaw said of where Polec stands.

"All I can talk about is what is happening now and I have really high standards and I expect a lot from my players in terms of playing their role."

When asked about what the veterans had to do to get back in the side, Shaw said it was about showing a team-first attitude consistently.

Young defender Kyron Hayden (knee swelling) had been listed as a test for this week, but he has been ruled out for another week or two.

Aiden Bonar (AC joint) and Jack Ziebell (hamstring) could return in the next fortnight, while Curtis Taylor (knee), Taylor Garner (hamstring) and Dom Tyson (calf) are all 2-3 weeks off.

Will Walker has been ruled out for 4-6 weeks with a high-grade hamstring injury, but Shaw saw real positives from the out-of-contract youngster before his latest setback.

"I was actually really disappointed that young Will Walker did his hamstring because he showed some really good signs last week that he was someone that we could build around and hopefully he gets an opportunity," Shaw said.