Higgins played against Collingwood on Saturday night but appeared well below his best after returning through the VFL following the diagnosis of his inflamed thyroid.
“All his indications with the testing we had and then his form at Williamstown we thought he’d get through ok, but there’s still some residual effect,” coach Rodney Eade on Wednesday.
“You could see by the way he ran on the weekend. He just didn’t have the speed or the energy.
“They’ve done another test on him and [his levels] have gone up a bit, so it’s best to shelve him.”
Eade said Ryan Griffen, Brian Lake and Tom Williams had pulled up well from Saturday night’s loss to the Magpies.
Griffen trained freely at the MCG on Wednesday but Lake and Williams, who collided heavily with each other during the qualifying final, were kept away from the main activity.
Easton Wood is in line for a call up after being a late withdrawal last week, while Brodie Moles, Josh Hill and Andrejs Everitt are also being considered.
Youngster Andrew Hooper is rated an outside chance to make his AFL debut in the semi-final against the Sydney Swans and was part of the Dogs’ training squad.
Jordan Roughead trained with both shoulders taped and is a chance to return to the side.
Higgins, Cooney and Morris were absent from the session. While Eade said Cooney wasn’t a realistic chance to play again this year, he was buoyed by Morris’ progression and said he was a chance to return from his back injury should the Dogs move deeper into the finals.
Brad Johnson trained two days after announcing his retirement while Barry Hall, who will face his former side this weekend, worked away from the group on his leading, marking and goal kicking.
Hall completed about half the session before leaving the field.
The feeling appeared good among the group as they went through the spirited session on the ground where they’ll face the Swans in three days’ time.
“They were pretty down after the game on Saturday night. It was certainly not up to the standard we expect and we don’t shy away from that,” Eade said.
“They’re a pretty resilient group. We need to bounce back - we know that it’s going to be a tough game.
“They’ve been a bit upbeat since Monday. We had a good review day, we spoke about some issues and things we need to focus on and hopefully, and I’m fairly confident, we’ll see a far better performance.”
