yes, any reference to this line of code (n.avatar_control) in overrides of macro must be deleted.
Some times you must delete lines code that call it, and it can be a little confuse if you don't know what to delete. A more easy action is tag them as comments. Normally this will work.
<!-- <n.avatar_control group="A"/> -->
In my override of macro topics_column I tag all lines:
<override_macro name="topics_column" parameters="width,title,count">
<n.table_column>
<head>
<td class="[n.column_default_border/] topics-column nowrap" style="[n.width_style.width/]">
<table class="avatar-table">
<tr>
<!--
<td style="width:22px;border:none">
<n.avatar_control group="A"/>
</td>
-->
<td class="nowrap" style="font-weight:bold;border:none">