North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson will have to explain himself to the AFL over his expletive-laden and "inappropriate" outburst towards St Kilda's Jimmy Webster and Dougal Howard.

Clarkson was incensed after Webster's high, late bump on Jy Simpkin in Sunday's practice match left the Kangaroos co-captain in concussion protocols and the Saints defender with an imminent tribunal hearing.

The coach reportedly used the word "c*******er" during an exchange of words with Webster and fellow Saints defender Howard at quarter-time.

Clarkson has already apologised, but he has been issued with a "please explain" from the AFL regarding the exchange and the alleged homophobic slur.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon took a dim view of the incident.

"Senior coaches or officials approaching players at breaks in play isn't something that we want to see anyway," Dillon said on Fox Footy's AFL 360.

"When you overlay what's been reported, it's language that Alastair has already come out and said it's inappropriate, it's something I don't like, and we don't need it in our game.

"We don't want to get ahead of the process, so what we do is provide a 'please explain' and give Alastair the opportunity to come back to us.

"We'll talk to St Kilda, and once we've got all that information we'll look at that and weigh it against what our rules are and then deal with it that way."

Clarkson had said he was "deeply disturbed" by the Webster bump on Simpkin, who has a recent concussion history.