The 22-year-old will leave for the US on Monday for the 12-day camp with Dane Swan, who has been nursing a thigh injury, Brent Macaffer and Darren Jolly.
Malthouse said the idea of a June training trip had been in the pipeline for two years and Brown, who had a traditional knee reconstruction in February after a tearing his anterior cruciate ligament at training, was a perfect candidate to go.
He also said while there was a chance the premiership backman would get back this season despite initial thought he was gone for the year, it had been wrongly reported he had round 17 earmarked as the weekend he would return to football.
"I was told today the Herald Sun said round 17; Nathan has never said that, his surgeon has never said that, we've never said that," he said on Friday.
"If Nathan gets back, it's fantastic. If he doesn't, it will set him up for next year."
Macaffer will attempt to build fitness after a limited pre-season and persistent problems with a foot stress fracture, and Jolly will go after a continuing battle with the knee he had operated on after Anzac Day.
Malthouse said the trip was only ever going to be cost effective if more than two players benefitted from the effort required to put it together.
"There are a couple of others who have had longer term injuries and there are others … if we could get away with it, we'd probably take 10 players," he said.
"We haven't got that money and that would destroy our opportunity to win games of football.
"We've got to be selective and we've got to look at the bigger picture; will these players come back in a better state for the end of the year?
"If Browny gets up, fantastic. If Macaffer gets up, he's also had a very poorly pre-season, interrupted through his injuries.
"Swanny's struggled and Darren Jolly will benefit greatly from it.
"That's what we're trying to do. If it was only going to be one or two players, it would have been a pointless exercise."
Malthouse said suggestion the Magpies were being excessive by deploying the group, along with sports science director David Buttifant, overseas mid-season were off the mark.
"We're bearing in mind we've got a football club that is financially okay; everyone thinks we're extravagant but it's like trying to pull teeth to get any money into our football department," he said.
"They say our football department is the biggest in the competition; it was, last year, simply because player payments through the double grand finals.
"For two years our football department was cut … [last year there were] inflated figures because of the double grand final."
Malthouse said just the four players were scheduled to depart on the trip "at this stage".
He also said it wouldn't be up to him to consider the same venture this time next year for players in a similar position.
"You're asking the wrong person now. It will come down to the new coach."
