The tendon that caused Daniel Wells so much trouble in 2015 is inflicting fresh pain, with the North Melbourne veteran set to miss his side's AFL clash with Carlton.
Wells skipped the undefeated Kangaroos' last-start win over Essendon because of a corked quad.
The 31-year-old has recovered from that injury but is now nursing a sore Achilles.
Wells played just two games in 2015 because of a lingering achilles problem.
North coach Brad Scott says Wells is a chance of facing the Blues on Saturday but it's more likely the star will miss "another week, maybe two".
"I've been caught up giving predictions on this in the past but what I can say is we're really optimistic," Scott said on Wednesday.
"We're being potentially overly cautious and probably frustrating Wellsy a little bit. Because he's missed so much footy.
"But we're determined not to turn this into something that can be more serious.
"So until he's absolutely perfect we won't roll him out."
North will make at least one change to the side that withstood a second-half surge from Essendon, with defender Michael Firrito to return.
Forward Mason Wood may yet retain his place in the team despite suffering what looked to be a nasty concussion against the Bombers.
"We've consulted all the experts and the experts have suggested that even though the incident can look pretty severe, sometimes you can recover really quickly," Scott said.
"We'll still be very cautious with him but his signs so far are really good."
Wood ran on Monday but still has to pass some tests this week to prove his fitness for the upcoming match at Etihad Stadium.
Scott was full of praise for Carlton and suggested nobody at Arden St was getting carried away with an 8-0 start.
"The challenges to come are really significant .. all it is a platform," he said.
"We've got a lot of work to do. I still maintain we're not playing anywhere near our best footy."
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