JOURNALIST Caroline Wilson has apologised and retracted her suggestion that North Melbourne sports science staff overruled their club doctor on medical matters, following criticism from Kangaroos coach Brad Scott.



On Wednesday morning Scott slammed Wilson over the comments, made on TV show Footy Classified earlier in the week, suggesting they were false, potentially libellous, and part of a vendetta against North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw.



Wilson backtracked on Melbourne radio station 3AW on Wednesday night.



"I don't agree with everything Brad Scott said today, but I do agree that I shouldn't have implied that Steve Saunders, their high performance expert, was over-ruling the club doctor," Wilson said.



"I absolutely accept that he doesn't…so I apologise to Steve.



"I don't think I have a vendetta against James Brayshaw, (although) I have been a critic of his."



Scott had earlier said he would be seeking an explanation from Wilson, and implied that legal action was a possibility.



"One thing that we are concerned about is that there are false accusations that any one of our staff would overrule a doctor. That is simply a lie," the Kangaroos coach said at Aegis Park.



"It's very dangerous territory when you start making those accusations without any evidence to back it up. I can categorically say that's not true."



Wilson's comments on Monday night were in response to Brayshaw, who said on Saturday the AFL had to come up with a better model than simply insisting the club doctor have the final say on medical matters, given club doctors were only part-time employees and other sports science and fitness staff were now full-time.



Wilson made it clear on Wednesday night that she still disagreed with Brayshaw on the issue.



"I don't think it's fair to say that the AFL should come up with a model and accept that doctors aren't at clubs enough and therefore shouldn't have to be adhered to or turned to at every medical issue," she said.



"Pay them more money, have them around an extra day or two.



"Clubs spend millions of dollars on different areas, and I don't think paying a doctor a bit of extra money, even though there might be days he doesn't do much, is any problem at all."



Scott was adamant North fully supported the club doctor having the final say on medical matters.



"There can be no other way," he said.



"That's certainly (been the case) in my time at North Melbourne – the doctor has had absolute final say on all medical decisions and that is cut and dried and that's always been the case.



"So to suggest otherwise is libellous."

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