Vickery was the only player from last week's 22 to fail to travel north on Wednesday ahead of Thursday night's clash with the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.
The Tigers took 25 players because of the short week with Matt McDonough, Ricky Petterd, Nathan Foley and the untried Ben Lennon part of the travelling squad.
But Vickery was a no-show at Melbourne Airport despite coach Damien Hardwick ruling him fit to play after he was subbed out at half time last week following just two touches
"It's nothing to do with injury," Hardwick said before the team departed.
"Ty's working on his game; he's probably like the majority of our players at the moment.
"He's playing at about a six out of 10 like the side is.
"We've just got to continue to work with him, get his best football up and going because he's a very important player to our side. He knows that and we know that."
Second ruckman Orren Stephenson didn't travel, indicating the Tigers are happy to go up against the Matthew Leuenberger-less Lions' outfit with Shaun Hampson and Ben Griffiths as their big men.
Leuenberger will miss up to three months after surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee on Tuesday.
Hardwick said being too big in attack was something the Tigers had gleaned from last week's loss to Collingwood and believed their forward structure would not lose potency if it was a tall short.
"It's still solid. We've still got some players who can go through there," he said.
"We probably felt even a little bit tall, a little bit cumbersome and once we got our forward mix right, I think we had 11 forward 50 turnovers, which we're leading the League in at the moment.
"We're just not getting the scoreboard result we're after.
"It's still going to be dangerous; we've got Dustin [Martin] who can go through there, [Trent] Cotchin, these types of players, and [Brett] Deledio when he comes back.
"It will still be formidable."
The Tigers will take on their former assistant coach Justin Leppitsch this weekend for the first time since he took on the Lions' senior role last year.
Hardwick said Leppitsch would no doubt lean on his inside knowledge of the Tigers and it could provide an advantage regarding specific players, but was not likely to affect how he approached their game plan.
"It's important, no doubt. He's got an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of our players, and also from a game plan point of view - has a lot changed, has a little bit?" he said.
"At the end of the day, most sides know how each other plays; it's just who comes out and executes it the best on the day.
"It will be no different this week."
Hardwick said the Tigers were no closer to putting a return date on Brett Deledio, who remains out with a sore Achilles.
He said the vice-captain had trained at times this week but emphasised how he pulled up was the important part.
"We're hopeful that next week's a possibility but at this stage I can't say."
Twitter: @AFL_JenPhelan
