North Melbourne spearhead Nathan Thompson says a possible knee injury is no excuse for his recent poor form.

Thompson, who returned from a knee reconstruction at the start of the year, will have scans on Tuesday on the knee after jarring it against Brisbane on Saturday night.

The Kangaroos' key forward hoped he was only suffering from "a bit of inflammation" around the knee and that there was no structural damage.

"I'm very optimistic, I don't think there's very much damage at all," Thompson said.

"I'd say I've just landed on it and jarred it a bit which is making it hard for me to run at top pace like on the weekend.

"Most weeks I've been playing with a little bit of soreness there and on the weekend unfortunately it didn't come up that well."

Thompson did not shy away from admitting he produced a poor effort in the 31-point loss to the Lions.

Thompson was held goalless and could only manage three kicks and one mark for the game.

"You've got to be honest about your own performance and I know it was below par," he said.

"More to the point, I think I was beaten by a very good opponent.

"There's no excuses for that - I didn't put up a good showing on the weekend for the team but hopefully this weekend I can get back out there and make amends for it."

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