Walker has had to manage the injury for most of the year  and struggled to play on a weekly basis. Carlton’s football operations manager Andrew McKay says Walker, who played 14 matches this season, will have  an arthroscopy to address the issue.

‘‘Andrew’s knee has been troubling him for a significant amount of the season but to his credit he has managed to play through the pain and make a solid contribution for our team,’’ McKay said.

‘‘While we have reduced Andrew’s training load and managed the injury as best we can, we believe it’s his best interests to have an arthroscope now to ensure it doesn’t get any worse.’’

Carlton is hoping Jarrad Waite will recover from a minor calf strain to play this weekend, with the veteran forward otherwise facing a three-week break in his battle to return to the senior team.

Waite withdrew from the Northern Blues’ VFL match on Sunday after injuring himself during a training session last week, but the strain is to the smallest of his calf muscles.

The 31-year-old has not played at senior level since round 14 and is  out of contract at the end of the season.

Both the Blues and their VFL equivalent have the bye next week, meaning that sitting out a second match  at the weekend would condemn Waite to missing three games in a row.

‘‘He’s a chance to play this week. We’re hoping he can play this week. Given that it’s not the major muscle, he may be OK,’’ McKay said.

The Blues are likely to regain their equal-leading goalkicker – second-year forward Troy Menzel – for Friday night’s match against North Melbourne.

Menzel’s injured shoulder was still troubling him at  the weekend, but McKay said the club was confident he would train  and play.

The Blues face five of the top eight clubs in their run home – North, Fremantle, Geelong, Port Adelaide and Essendon – as well as the ninth-placed Gold Coast.

The club has lost all seven matches played against the current eight, trailing in disposals (-47), contested possessions (-28), uncontested possessions (-43), clearances (-14), and tackles (-9).

North Melbourne is optimistic Lachie Hansen will recover from concussion in time for the game, having so far satisfied the club’s doctors, while Luke McDonald will return from illness, and Leigh Adams should play despite landing badly on a knee he has been managing for some time.

Football manager Geoff Walsh said Wednesday’s main training session would say much about Jack Ziebell’s chances of returning from the knee problem that has kept him out since round 15.

‘‘He’s going OK. We expect him to train, but Wednesday will tell the story,’’ Walsh said.