North Melbourne have been dealt a double blow ahead of the 2020 AFL season with Kayne Turner and Luke Davies-Uniacke both set for long-term injury lay offs.

Young gun Davies-Uniacke has been sidelined indefinitely and told to stop running because of concerns over an ongoing groin problem.

The 20-year-old had been expected to take a big step forward with the Kangaroos in his third season at AFL level.

But the fresh fitness issue is a major setback for the former No.4 draft pick.

It comes after Davies-Uniacke’s 2019 season was cut short by a right-shoulder injury that required a reconstruction.

“Luke’s been battling a pubic overload issue,” Kangaroos football manager Brady Rawlings said. “It’s extremely disappointing, because fitness-wise he was setting himself up for a big year.

“We all know what LDU is capable of so we’ll put him in a rehabilitation program to build him back up to full strength when the time is right.

“We’ve decided to take an aggressive off-load approach with Luke given his age.

“When he’s clinically all-clear we will re-load him conservatively and start him on a running program.”

Meanwhile, small forward Kayne Turner will miss the first half of the season because of a foot-bone fracture.

Scans this week confirmed the 24-year-old has a medial sesamoid fracture in the ball of his foot, under his left big toe.

“We feel that a conservative rehabilitation approach is the best course of action for now to let the bone heal,” Rawlings said.

“Because of the nature of the injury, we hope to see Kayne just after the bye in June.

“He’s a big loss, but we’ll be looking to our other small forwards to step up in his absence.

“It means there’ll be more opportunities for the likes of Jack Mahony, Taylor Garner, Lachie Hosie, Cam Zurhaar and Tarryn Thomas.”

North Melbourne have one final pre-season hit-out against Sydney in Tasmania before opening the home-and-away campaign against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on March 22.