North assistant coach Darren Crocker said Swallow would travel to Perth with his teammates on Wednesday evening, but would need to prove he had overcome the right knee injury he suffered against the Western Bulldogs.
Along with fellow Roos assistants Shane Watson and Brett Allison, Crocker was deputising for North coach Brad Scott, who had been scheduled to give a press conference at Aegis Park on Tuesday morning but phoned in sick.
Crocker said scans on Swallow's knee had been "positive", but he would be nursed through North's main training session on Tuesday.
"He probably won't do a hell of a lot today," Crocker said.
"But now it's just going to be a matter of how he gets through the rest of the week.
"He's going to travel with us ... but we've got to have plans in place in case he doesn't come up as well.
"At this stage we're hoping for the best."
Swallow was one of several North players under an injury cloud ahead of Friday night's clash with half-back Aaron Mullett substituted out of last Saturday night's game against the Bulldogs with an ankle injury and key defender Nathan Grima missing the game with general soreness.
Defensive coach Watson said that, like Swallow, Mullett would be given a chance to prove his fitness at Thursday's training session in Perth.
But Watson said Grima was expected to play against the Eagles.
Forwards coach Allison said key forward Robbie Tarrant, who has missed the past four rounds with a nagging leg injury that was initially expected to sideline him for no more than two weeks, was set to miss another one or two rounds.
"It's a bit of a nerve-ending type of injury," Allison said.
"He trained really well last Wednesday and we really thought he was a chance to play [against the Bulldogs], but unfortunately he pulled up sore the following day.
"So with these nerve-type injuries you've got to give it the time to rest and completely fix itself."
Crocker said North had learned several key lessons in its 96-point thrashing by West Coast in last year's elimination final at Patersons Stadium.
"We just went through some vision with the playing group before our training meeting," Crocker said.
"There were things that let us down in that final that we've been able to really learn from and I think we're far better equipped to take the Eagles on their home turf and be able to fix some of those issues this time around."
The Roos have won just one of their past nine clashes at Patersons Stadium, but Crocker said the Eagles' home ground held no fears for North.
"It's just sticking to the way we want to play, playing to our method and we weren't able to do that as well as we would have liked last year obviously," Crocker said.
"We think that we're doing that a lot more consistently at the moment and we've been a really hard team to play against, even in our losses so far this year.
"Teams have had to really find something to get over the top of us and so we think that will hold us in good stead."
Nick Bowen covers North Melbourne news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
