North Melbourne coach Dean Laidley says his side's shocking luck with injury in their loss to St Kilda is a "prime example" to support the introduction of substitutes in the AFL.

Five North players overcame bouts of gastro during the week to play the Saints at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, but it was injury and not illness that left the Kangaroos questioning why their luck deserted them.

The Roos led the ladder-leader to half-time, but lost two players just before the main break and suffered a further four injuries in the second half to play out the game with 17 men on the ground.

In the worst of the injuries, forward Ben Warren suffered a fractured cheekbone, while veteran Adam Simpson might have to wait longer than first thought to play his 300th game because of a calf injury.

Simpson and Daniel Pratt (calf) played sore in the final term while Warren was in hospital, Sam Power (concussion), Daniel Wells (hip) and Sam Wright (knee) were on the bench and Matt Campbell was rested after returning from a hamstring-enforced absence.

Laidley was proud of his players' gallant effort and told them to forget about being overrun in the 15.13 (103) to 9.3 (57) loss.

"We set ourselves to win the contested footy, we set ourselves to tackle them and I said if they win (those) and we have a little bit of a luck, we're right in the ball game," he said.

"But we didn't get any good luck, we had bad luck.

"Losing two players before half-time and then running around in the last quarter with 17 on the ground and having two blokes who shouldn't have been out there, it's a monumental effort. A monumental effort."

In the pre-season competition the AFL trialled the use of substituting players who were injured and could take no further part in the game with extra players on the bench, specially named as substitutes.

Laidley was unsure whether he would contact the league calling for the measure to be implemented permanently, but said Saturday's game would be the case he highlighted.

"It's a prime example to lose that many players," he said.

"I just said to the players 'just forget the second half because if they're (St Kilda) the best in the competition, then we're going in the right direction'.

"I thought the way they (North) played was just super."

The call for substitutes to be introduced has come previously from Collingwood's Mick Malthouse, Fremantle's Mark Harvey and Terry Wallace, who has just finished his coaching reign at Richmond.

Warren fractured his cheekbone trying to tackle Raph Clarke, while Power was assisted off the ground after being flattened off-the-ball by Steven King, who is likely to face scrutiny from the match review panel.

The Kangaroos went into the game without young gun Jack Ziebell, who was ill during the week.

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