North’s Corr available to face Suns in AFL

North Melbourne key defender Aidan Corr is available to face Gold Coast despite being substituted out of the Kangaroos’ opening AFL loss to Port Adelaide.

Corr suffered a toe injury during Sunday’s game and made way for Charlie Lazzaro in the final quarter of the 52-point thumping, minutes before Curtis Taylor was helped off the ground with a head knock and ruled out with concussion.

While Taylor faces a mandatory 12 days on the sidelines under new concussion rules, there is no mandated break for Corr after his injury and coach David Noble said the former Giant was fit to play on Saturday night.

“He will be (available) – we had a scan earlier in the week,” Noble said.

“As we said, we tried and he couldn’t have gone any further than where he did – we were risking him being out for a period of time.

“There’s a little bit more of a complication with the way that his feet are structured, I won’t bore you with the details, but that’s part of why we have to make that medical assessment.

“So had we kept him out there it would have been a far greater risk after he’d tried to stay on.

“So, medical sub worked well for us in that sense.”

Corr, Geelong’s Sam Menegola (shoulder) and Richmond’s Nick Vlastuin (knee) are the subbed-out players in contention to play in round two.

Vlastuin is yet to be ruled out of Richmond’s clash with Hawthorn on Sunday after squashing the fat pad in his knee while Menegola could face Brisbane on Friday night after his AC joint injury.

For the Kangaroos, though, Corr’s availability will come as welcome relief following massive hits to their defensive stocks.

Robbie Tarrant, who was sidelined for the season-opener by a groin strain, had a small lump removed from a kidney on Tuesday and isn’t expected to return until the second half of the season, while Luke McDonald (quad) could still be a couple of weeks away.

Midfielder Ben Cunnington has recovered from concussion but is still another week away as he builds his training loads but Jed Anderson (calf) and Aaron Hall (adductor) are in contention to face the Suns.