Fremantle midfielder Hayden Young will play his first game in a month as the Dockers swing three changes for Saturday’s clash with North Melbourne in Bunbury.

The Dockers have lost Brennan Cox (knee) and Matt Johnson (hamstring) to injury and dropped Chris Scerri and brought in veteran midfielder Jaeger O’Meara along with defender Oscar McDonald.

It will be O’Meara’s first game since the Dockers defeated Collingwood in Adelaide in Gather Round in early April.

It follows solid form in the WAFL after he recovered from surgery to facial injuries he suffered in a training mishap.

McDonald comes in as a ready-made replacement for a key back as he did when Alex Pearce was out with a knee injury. Scerri, Hugh Davies and Jeremy Sharp are the three emergencies.

Young trained alongside his teammates at Cockburn on Thursday morning. He last played in the round nine win over Hawthorn, having sustained a concussion at training in the days after the come-from-behind win against the fellow premiership fancies.

It was the latest in a series of injury setbacks for the 25-year-old who has played only 14 games since the start of last year.

Coach Justin Longmuir said before training on Thursday that Young would be on restricted minutes but given he could run while in protocols, the midfielder had not lost conditioning.

“The beauty of his training the past couple of weeks is he just hasn’t done contact, but he’s been able to do a lot of running,” Longmuir said.

Johnson was also out on the track alongside Young despite finishing the game on the bench with ice on his hamstring.

Cox was restricted to running laps and watched training with Pearce as they prepare for the Kangaroos at Hands Oval.

“Coxy is an interesting one and with the bye next week, is it an opportunity to give him a couple of weeks off to try to get that knee right,” Longmuir said.

“We’ll see how he feels after training and make a call after that.”

Longmuir also cleared star Shai Bolton of any concern despite the Brownlow Medal contender donning a glove and no-contact fluro hat at training on Tuesday.

North Melbourne brought in Zac Fisher as a replacement for in-form midfielder and tagger Finn O’Sullivan who has entered concussion protocols after he received a head knock at training on Wednesday.

O’Sullivan clashed heads with ruck Tristan Xerri who has been cleared of concussion and flew with the team.

Xerri was best-afield in the Roos’ win over West Coast in Bunbury last season.

NORTH MELBOURNE v FREMANTLE

Saturday, Hands Oval, 12.15pm

KANGAROOS

B: W Dawson G Logue C Comben

HB: L McDonald C Daniel L Parker

C: J Simpkin C McKercher D Stephens

HF: P Curtis C Trembath C Spargo

F: C Zurhaar N Larkey Z Duursma

FOLL: T Xerri L Davies-Uniacke H Sheezel

I/C: G Wardlaw Z Fisher R Hardeman J Darling J Konstanty.

EMG: T Pink C Harvey T Blamires.

IN: Z Fisher.

OUT: Finn O’Sullivan (concussion).

DOCKERS

B: H Chapman A Pearce O McDonald

HB: K Worner L Ryan J Clark

C: N O’Driscoll A Brayshaw M Frederick

HF: S Switkowski I Dudley M Reid

F: J Treacy J Amiss P Voss

FOLL: L Jackson S Bolton H Young

I/C: J O’Meara M Cox C Wagner N Erasmus J McVee.

EMG: C Scerri H Davies J Sharp.

IN: O McDonald H Young J O’Meara.

OUT: B Cox M Johnson C Scerri.