NORTH Melbourne premiership coach Darren Crocker is "hopeful" that star forward Alice O'Loughlin will be available for his side's preliminary final in a fortnight.
O'Loughlin left the ground in the hands of trainers during the final quarter of the Kangaroos' 36-point win over Carlton after hurting her knee in a tackle by Gab Pound.
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The dual premiership player was emotional on the bench after the incident and took no further part in the game.
"Initially I thought it was her ankle but they're telling me that it's a little bit of a knee issue and it's a knee issue that she's had existing for a few weeks," Crocker said after the match.
"Fingers crossed. She'll obviously get assessed over the next 24 hours, potentially get a scan and hopefully it's not too serious.
"The week off next week will obviously help her. We're hopeful we'll see her again in the prelim."
Another player who could potentially return for the penultimate weekend is former league best and fairest Emma Kearney.
Kearney injured her hamstring in round nine and was this week listed in the club's injury report as 1-2 weeks away from returning.
"Yeah, ‘Kearns' has been ticking all the boxes. She's been going really well, done everything that's been asked of her," Crocker said.
"We've been here and done that with Kearns before so she's known the drill, she's known what she's had to do, and she's got obviously two weeks of training to get into her before the prelim.
"But it would be good to get her to that point and get some game time into her in the prelim."
Carlton coach Mathew Buck was adamant that his side's morale was high despite the fact that the Blues only scored one goal in Saturday's match.
"They've (North Melbourne) had a great second quarter and we've had a poor one where they've kicked four on us," Buck said.
"So our morale is fine, I've got a really resilient group and a group that will stick together so there's no question around that.
"We've earned the right to have another game which is fantastic and we'll take the lessons from this game and see where we didn't shape up and go to work on those."
The Blues also suffered an injury to key defender Ciara Fitzpatrick, who hurt her leg in a marking contest in the second term.
"She's really important to our structure. One of our great half-backers over the past few years and continues to grow and get better all the time," Buck said,
"We lost a little bit of drive off our half-back when Fitzy came out of the game. A corked shin, I'm told… so I'm not sure of the severity of that at all at the moment. I guess we'll find out during the week."
The Blues will face the winner of Sunday's elimination final between Gold Coast and Hawthorn.
