Swallow ruptured his left Achilles tendon last year in round 18 against Melbourne.
Despite the Roos' initial estimate that Swallow would return in the second half of 2014, the skipper started the pre-season hopeful he would ready to play in North's round one clash with Essendon.
Speaking at the AFL captains' day in Adelaide on Wednesday, Swallow said he now accepted the club's conservative approach to his rehabilitation was the best course.
"I've got a bit of a sore foot which is just sort of holding me back a little bit, but the Achilles is great, it's feeling really good," Swallow said.
"But the club want to be pretty cautious with it.
"So although I said early on I want to be back round one – and I probably could be – I know they're holding me back and want to make sure everything's right to go, so there's no chance of redoing anything later on."
Swallow was not concerned by North's NAB Challenge losses to Carlton and Hawthorn, saying the Roos' No. 1 priority in those matches had been getting game time into their players, which they had achieved.
The Roos captain said North had been "OK at times" in its seven-point loss to the Blues, but had been taught a football lesson in its 65-point loss to the Hawks.
"When your effort is not there it's pretty hard to win games and [the Hawks] showed us that they're obviously up and about and playing some great footy at the moment," Swallow said.
"I'd much rather learn that in the NAB Challenge than to find out round one against Essendon. Although it was disappointing, I think the guys know the level to bring each week now."
Swallow conceded the Roos' tough pre-season had left their players feeling flat before the Hawks game, but said that was no excuse for their lack of competitive spirit.
Drew Petrie stood in as North captain during Swallow's absence at the end of last season.
North has yet to announce who will fill the stand-in role this year, but Swallow said Petrie was again likely to take the leadership reins.
"Drewy's being doing it in the pre-season and I imagine he would probably continue to do that in the season," Swallow said.
North has reached just one finals series, 2012, in coach Brad Scott's four-year tenure and is coming off a bitterly disappointing 2013 season, when 10 losses by 16 points or less condemned it to a 10th-place finish.
Although North has been widely touted as a top-four contender this year, Swallow said the Roos' aim was simply to make the finals.
"We feel now we're at a point where we're playing some good footy. We've got to tweak a few things, change a few things defensively, not leak as many goals," Swallow said.
"We love playing the brand of footy that we play, we like playing a nice attacking brand, but we've got to be hard to score against as well."
Twitter: @AFL_Nick
