ANDREW Swallow is disappointed to be missing North Melbourne's Utah training camp but has no doubt his rehabilitation from a ruptured Achilles tendon remains on track.
Swallow was a late withdrawal from the high-altitude camp that began last week, having experienced lingering soreness in his left Achilles the week before.
Swallow told AFL.com.au on Friday his Achilles had since settled down after some rest, with scans this week "really positive".
But the North skipper said his recent soreness had convinced him, club doctor Andy McMahon and coach Brad Scott that he was best to continue his rehabilitation in Melbourne.
"I hadn't really been doing a lot when the Achilles just started getting a bit sore and over a week or so it kept lingering around," Swallow said.
"When it took a while to get better, we decided I was better off staying in Melbourne. We've got really great facilities at North and it's much easier getting scans if we need to.
"The main thing in my discussions with Andy was the long term. Although I want to get back as quickly as I can, my long-term playing future is what we're worried about."
As skipper, Swallow is annoyed not being in Utah, having intended to mentor some of the Roos' younger players.
He had also been planning to leave a few days earlier than the rest of the team so he could indulge his passion for the NBA at a Los Angeles Lakers game.
But Swallow is content his rehabilitation has not been set back, knowing – a few high-altitude hikes aside – he can do as much at home as he was planning to do in Utah.
And having seen the snowy conditions in Utah over the past week via the videos on North's website, Swallow doubts he would have done much hiking anyway.
More tellingly, the 26-year-old senses staying in Melbourne might have saved him from his competitive self.
"I'm the sort of person who will just keep pushing, pushing and pushing, so it's probably not a bad thing to stay home. At least here I'm limited in what I can do and I can't cause too much damage," Swallow said, laughing.
To ensure he doesn't get too lonely over the next two weeks, Swallow has roped in some mates to help with his rehab at Aegis Park, while he is also attending training at North's VFL affiliate Werribee twice a week, combining a coaching role and work with the Tigers' rehab group.
Swallow has also enjoyed being able to watch start of the Ashes series.
We spoke during England's second-day batting collapse in the first Test at the Gabba, regularly pausing to celebrate the wickets that fell like tropical rain during our conversation.
It's been four months since Swallow ruptured his Achilles early in the third quarter of the Roos' 122-point round 18 rout of Melbourne.
After undergoing surgery soon after, he spent six weeks in a moon boot.
Since then he has been walking, gradually increasing the intensity and length of his walks, and is now also doing weights, swimming, bike riding and boxing.
"I'm pretty much doing everything you can do except for running," Swallow says.
"Hopefully I'll start running in the next couple of weeks or so on the Alter-G (a treadmill with a harness that reduces the weight absorbed by a runner's legs).
"The aim is to be running on the ground some time next year."
North coach Scott said last month the Roos knew they could be without Swallow for the first half of next season.
The skipper is more optimistic and says club doctor McMahon shares his confidence he'll be back "a lot quicker".
"In my mind I'd love to be back round one, but I think probably it's going to be a month or two in," Swallow says.
"We'll just have wait and see how it pans out. It's one of those things I think that's going to be quite fluid, it could change depending on how everything has gone.
"Obviously I want to be back as quickly as I can, but as long as I get back and I'm back to 100 per cent that's the main thing."
Swallow envisages he will have to play a couple of VFL games before returning to captain the Roos and, when that happens, knows he shouldn't expect too much too soon.
"There aren't too many guys who come back in and get going straight away," he says.
"Obviously I want to come straight back in and play like I did previously, but I understand it might take a while."
Still, Swallow has been buoyed by a couple of recent conversations with star Hawthorn forward Jarryd Roughead.
Roughead ruptured his left Achilles tendon in round 12, 2011, but returned by round two the following season and this year produced a career-best season that culminated in his first Coleman Medal win.
Roughead told Swallow he felt ready to play some time before he returned, but Hawthorn was more cautious and held him back.
"That gives me great confidence that I can get back out there and really try and test the leg early next year," Swallow says.
"And also just to see the way he played his footy this year – he was probably one of the top two key forwards in the comp – shows there's no reason you can't get back to your best."
