The Dogs will regain Adam Cooney, Ben Hudson, Jarrad Grant and Jarrod Harbrow but will lose Shaun Higgins (calf) and Easton Wood (hamstring).
They are also in danger of playing without full back Brian Lake, who didn’t train on Wednesday at Whitten Oval as he battles a hip injury from Saturday night.
“He’s probably only 50-50 at this stage,” coach Rodney Eade said.
“He hurt it in the warm up on Saturday night and he struggled through the game so we’re not too sure if he’ll be playing.”
Eade said the club would make a call on Lake’s availability later in the week, possibly as late as game day.
Barry Hall is still carrying “a residual cough” but is expected to be fine to face the Swans.
Mitch Hahn is in line for a recall after a strong showing in the VFL on the weekend, while Will Minson is likely to be omitted to make way for the incoming Hudson.
The Dogs will travel to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation ahead of the round 21 clash and what lies after it.
“It’s like last year when we went to play Brisbane, we went up a couple of days early,” Eade said.
“That’s always been the plan at this time of the year with the way the draw’s fallen and a bit warmer weather.
“We’ll go up early, this afternoon, and do a bit of a training run in the warmer weather and head to Manly for a couple of days and then into the city on Friday.”
Eade said there was no evidence of mental scarring from the Dogs’ heavy loss to the Cats and felt Wednesday’s spirited training session showed that.
“I think we’ve proven over the last three years especially we’re a fairly resilient group and it was so unlike us, it’s not like it’s every eight weeks something like that happens,” he said.
“We ran into a red hot side and we didn’t fulfil our end of the bargain.
“I don’t think you sweep it under the carpet. There’s a few aspects of it we needed to talk about. We’ve certainly moved on from the game very quickly.”
He said the hard-hitting training session was about “cleansing the soul” after the shocking defeat but was also related to the opposition the Dogs will face on Saturday night.
“On the small ground there will be a lot of stoppages and contested work so we need to ramp that up again,” he said.
“It’s more about who we’re playing, the size of the ground and the way Sydney play.
“There’s going to be a lot of contested ball and stoppages, which generally been our strength.
“They weren’t on Saturday night but as you could see by the training today, that’s the sort of work we needed to do.”
