Injured North Melbourne midfielder Daniel Wells isn’t expected to be back in the AFL for another fortnight but coach Brad Scott still expects him to have an impact when he finally returns.

Wells hasn’t played since round two, requiring surgery on his achilles tendon.

Despite the long layoff, Scott says Wells proved with his lengthy recovery from a serious foot injury last season that he didn’t need a lot of game time to play a starring role.

“We’ve got a pretty good template last year when he was coming back from that significant Lisfranc injury and he was our best player in the first half in the final if not for the whole game,” Scott said.