ROO FAVOURITE CUNNINGTON PRIMED FOR RETURN

NORTH Melbourne midfielder Ben Cunnington is poised to make his long-awaited return to football this weekend in a feel-good story for the struggling Kangaroos.

The veteran needs only to get through main training to be declared fit to play his first game in more than 12 months after recovering from a battle with testicular cancer.

Cunnington had a testicular tumour removed last July, before a routine check-up detected a secondary cancer which required a nine-week course of chemotherapy over the offseason.

The 31-year-old returned to Arden St in February but has had injury setbacks this year which haven’t allowed him to return to the field, including a calf strain in July and a bout of Covid-19 last week.

North Melbourne head of performance Kevin White said Cunnington was symptomatic in the days after he contracted Covid-19 but has since recovered and was eyeing a return this week.

“Ben had a strong footy conditioning and strength session on Sunday and will fall into the main group training this week,” White said.

“He’ll be available to play if he clears training Thursday.”

North Melbourne faces Sydney in both the VFL and the AFL on Sunday.

Cunnington, whose last AFL game came against Carlton in Round 19 last year, is currently out of contract at the end of the year. He finished second in North Melbourne’s best and fairest last year despite playing just 15 games. CARLTON vice-captain Jacob Weitering says mouthguards will come out as the side braces for a rigorous week on the training track to ensure it cements a spot in the finals following last week’s shock loss to Adelaide.

The Blues sit only one game and percentage out of the top four, but inconsistency has meant that they have been unable to register consecutive wins for the past 10 rounds – a pattern Weitering said the Blues are actively trying to fix.

“We’re in a really, really strong position and as I’ve spoken about the opportunity is there for us to take with both hands, but we’ve gotta do that still,” Weitering said.

“We’ll be training bloody hard and putting the mouthguards in.”

Last year’s All Australian said he wasn’t sure whether Jack Silvagni would be brought back in.