Brad Scott says North Melbourne will take no risks with Todd Goldstein after knee injury

NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott has bounced back after falling ill last Thursday but the same can’t be said for Todd Goldstein, with the ruckman in doubt for this weekend.

North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein won’t be risked if he’s not close to 100 per cent fit. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott says he has bounced back fine after last week’s health scare which forced him to miss his side’s win over Richmond in Hobart.

“I feel fine. No dramas whatsoever,” Scott said on Wednesday.

“I bounced back just as quickly as I went down.

“It was a little bit frustrating, just due to the timing and all the tests that confirmed what I didn’t have but unfortunately none that confirmed what it actually was.

“Initially they were running with viral meningitis for the first 24 hours which can be very, very serious.

“The doctors were absolutely fantastic.”

North’s All-Australian ruckman Todd Goldstein, who didn’t play last Friday night because of a sore knee, was out on the track and did warm-up drills with the main group.

“The rough estimate last week was he was about 85 per cent,” Scott said.

“But we won’t risk him unless he’s 100 per cent or extremely close to it.”

The table-topping Kangaroos face third-placed Geelong at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

Scott agreed with Geelong’s coach Chris Scott, his twin brother, that the Cats’ big forward Tom Hawkins was unlucky to be suspended for striking Greater Western Sydney’s Phil Davis.

“Oh yeah, extremely surprised,” Brad Scott said.

North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein won’t be risked if he’s not close to 100 per cent fit. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

“It didn’t look like a reportable offence.

“It’s all very well to say players are on notice now. But Tom didn’t get much notice did he?

“The frustrating thing was Mark Evans made it very clear when he took over (as the AFL’s football operations manager) that we don’t want players to miss games unless they do something stupid that deserves to miss games.

“For those innocuous sorts of things that we don’t want to condone, we’ll fine the players for that, and that’s the way it has always been since Mark came in.

“This is the one where it seems to be it flies in the face of all the previous decisions.”