Like any luxury car enthusiast, Brad Scott will only wheel out his Rolls Royce if it is in mint condition.
The North Melbourne coach is confident that Daniel Wells will play in Saturday night's big AFL match against Port Adelaide, but he stressed the star midfielder must be 100 per cent ready.
Wells hurt an Achilles tendon in last Sunday's big win over Brisbane and was picked to take on the Power at Etihad Stadium.
The skilled onballer surprised Scott by training on Thursday and also ran without any apparent discomfort at Friday's light session.
"One thing we know about Daniel is he's a Rolls Royce and he needs to be feeling at his best to play his best," Scott said.
"Some other players are a little bit different, in that they can carry injuries.
"But when you have players who have elite speed an agility, if you blunt that, then you take away a lot of their strengths."
North clearly have not made the final call on whether Wells stays in the side for the Port match.
"We're really confident - we wouldn't have picked him otherwise - but again if he's not perfect, he won't play," Scott said.
It has been a bad week for injuries at North, with fellow onballer Nick Dal Santo to miss about three months because of hamstring surgery.
The severity of the injury took Scott by surprise.
Immediately after the Brisbane match, Scott was hopeful that Dal Santo might be available to play this weekend.
"We're really disappointed for him and to be honest, I'm a little shocked," Scott said.
"I wasn't telling fibs in the post-game press conference ... my information at the time was that we were going to do everything to get him up for this game.
"Dal felt very little to no pain, he had full range of motion, and then to hear he needs surgery was a real shock.
"That's still sinking in for him and for us."
While Dal Santo is out and Wells may or may not play, fellow midfielder Ryan Bastinac is back.
Bastinac was dropped after their round-one shocker against Adelaide.
"He wasn't our worst performer (in) round one, we're just really looking for Ryan to take the next step," Scott said.
Scott added defender Scott Thompson would definitely play against Port after he hurt an ankle last weekend.
Share
