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Carlton coach David Teague says Harry McKay's absence from Saturday's narrow win over North Melbourne was less than ideal.
Carlton coach David Teague says the confusion in the build-up to tall forward Harry McKay's omission from Saturday's AFL clash with North Melbourne was less than ideal.
McKay was withdrawn from the Blues team just hours before the match at the Gabba due to a knee injury suffered while training by himself on Thursday.
The 22-year-old hyperextended his knee during a solo session after an abnormality in a regular COVID-19 test forced him to be kept away from the rest of the team.
Teague said the situation could have been better managed.
"We want to have the players training together and again we don't have any vision of it so, look, it's not ideal," the Blues coach said.
"It wasn't on purpose. It happened.
"Maybe we just need to get tested earlier so that's not an issue, because every other player came back clear. It was just an abnormality in his test or something like that. There's no positive or negative results, it was just no result."
In the end McKay's absence did not hurt the Blues as they held on for a seven-point win over North which lifts them to a 4-4 record.
Teague said he was hopeful McKay would be fit to return when Carlton face Hawthorn in Perth next Friday.
"He was a bit sore yesterday but we wanted to give him an extra 24 hours to see if he was right," Teague said.
"This morning they said he wasn't quite right so hopefully that means that he'll be close next week."