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North Melbourne have continued their rollercoaster ride on the injury front, the Roos welcoming back a key trio the same day Mason Wood was ruled out for up to two months.Jarrad Waite, Daniel Wells and Nick Dal Santo have all been passed fit to return this week, while Wood has undergone knee surgery.The emerging forward injured his left knee in the Kangaroos loss to West Coast and coach Brad Scott confirmed on Thursday he would miss six to eight weeks.They repaired the medial ligament, and also tidied up some other things in the knee, Scott said.Were expecting about a six-to-eight week recovery, which will put him pretty close to the bye before the finals, so its going to be a tight run back.But our attitude as a club is to do everything we can to try to get him back, potentially for a finals series. Well just have to rehab it as best we can.Wood has emerged as an important part of the Roos forward set-up, with his loss another setback for a team that has struggled under the weight of a lengthy injury list of late.North have been in free fall recently, losing five of six games to go from top of the ladder after 12 rounds to eighth heading into round 17.The Roos face an improving Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, with the Power, their nearest challenger three games behind in ninth.Its important and to be perfectly honest were not burying our head in the sand, Scott said of the key encounter.We understand the situation with the state of the ladder and the tightness of the competition. But really our main focus is just on rediscovering our best footy.Weve been thereabouts in terms of a lot of things weve been trying to do but they havent been polished performances and they havent been good enough to get us the win.So were just really focused on getting back to our best and the rest will take care of itself.Scott dismissed calls for out-of-form forward Drew Petrie to be dropped as irrelevant, adding he had not for one second considered sending the veteran back to the VFL. Adidas Shoes Clearance Sale Online . The home side created most of the chances but struggled to break down Braunschweigs resilient defence, resulting in the Bundesligas 1,000th scoreless draw. Adidas Shoes Canada Online Store . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. http://www.clearanceadidasshoescanada.com/ . Ivanovic was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Hantuchova withdrew after falling 0-40 behind in the second game. The match started slowly for Ivanovic, who surrendered her first two serves as Hantuchova took a 5-3 lead. Adidas Originals Canada Sale . McPhee said that Ovechkins father Mikhail is in stable condition after having the surgery this week and is no longer in intensive care. "Weve told him to stay as long as necessary with your dad," he said. Ovechkin and his Russian national team were eliminated from the mens hockey tournament in Sochi on Wednesday with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland. Adidas Shoes Sale Canada . "Jeff is a hard worker who was an important special-teams contributor for us last season," said Stamps GM John Hufnagel. Joe Maddon isnt surprised by the Chicago Cubs recent slump.Weve lost some games, and things arent going well right now, the Cubs manager said Thursday prior to a trip to Pittsburgh for a three-game series against the Pirates. Its just our turn, and weve got to fight through it. Like Winston Churchill once said, when youre going through hell, just keep on going.The Cubs opened the season with the best start in more than a century, climbing as high as 27 games above .500 and building a 12 1/2-game lead in the National League Central at one point.Since June 5, however, the Cubs are 13-18 with seven losses in eight games following a rain-delayed, 4-3, 11-inning loss to the Atlanta Braves on Thursday at Wrigley Field.I think there are long-term dividends attached to all of this stuff, Maddon said. A lot of the young guys getting more at-bats than we had thought at this time in the year -- guys like (catcher Willson) Contreras being forced into a more significant moment in July as opposed to maybe in September. Its just going to benefit him and us.The Cubs have used five rookies in recent weeks, all of whom joined the team in roughly the last month.Outfielder and leadoff batter Dexter Fowler, the catalyst to many first half wins, is on the disabled list along with backup catcher David Ross, who was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list this week.Cubs starting pitching -- notably the big three of Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester and John Lackey -- have struggled of late, but they look to close the first half with positive performances.Arrieta (12-3, 2.33 ERA) gets the first crack in the series opener Friday when he faces left-hander Francisco Liriano (5-8, 5.34 ERA). Arrieta is 9-1 with a 1.46 ERA in 12 career starts against Pittsburgh.Liriano is 0-2 against Chicago this year. He lost a 9-4 decision at Wrigley Field on May 13 and a 6-0 decision to Arrieta on June 17. He is 5-4 with a 3.36 ERA in 13 all-time starts against the Cubs.ddddddddddddLester goes on Saturday, and he will have Contreras behind the plate after Ross went disabled list. Lackey wraps up the series on Sunday.Chad Kuhl will start for the Pirates on Saturday, and Jon Niese will pitch Sunday.The Cubs division lead is hardly in jeopardy at eight games over the St. Louis Cardinals and 8 1/2 over Pittsburgh. However, the race could tighten further against a surging Pirates team.Three weeks ago, the Pirates were 15 games behind Chicago following a three-game Cubs sweep at Wrigley Field. Pittsburgh appeared on the verge of slipping out of contention, generating speculation it would write off the season and sell off players to contending teams.The Pirates instead turned the season around. Pittsburgh is 10-3 since June 24 and had won seven straight until a 5-1 loss to the Cardinals on Thursday at Busch Stadium.However, even the series-ending defeat was encouraging, as rookie Tyler Glasnow impressed in his big league debut. He pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed four runs on three hits, struck out five and walked two.He became the second Pirates pitcher to make his major league debut in three days, joining Steven Brault, who had a four-inning no-decision on Tuesday.The Cubs wont see either during the series.Pirates pitching had the lowest ERA (2.64) in the major leagues between June 25 and Wednesday. An improved bullpen has also been a significant element, led by closer Mark Melancon, who has converted each of his past 22 save situations dating back to April 27.The bullpens been incredible, thats tremendous, left-hander Jeff Locke said after he worked four innings Wednesday in the Pirates 7-5 win over the Cardinals. To hand the ball over to those guys -- youd like to go further into the game than that, but every day cant be Christmas. ' ' '