Addo-Carr needed surgery after going down early in the Good Friday clash with South Sydney, but made better progress in his recovery than expected and was named on Cameron Ciraldo's team sheet to face the Warriors on Friday.
But the winger tweaked his injury at training on Thursday and will miss the game, leaving the Bulldogs to reconfigure their back-line.
The setback means Addo-Carr's earliest possible return - against Gold Coast on May 21 - will come only hours before Brad Fittler names his team for Game I.
Before suffering the syndesmosis injury, Addo-Carr had looked set to regain his place for the May 31 series-opener after being dropped last year.
Canterbury told AAP they are hopeful the Gunggandji, Birrbay and Wiradjuri man will make his comeback in Indigenous Round next weekend but their primary concern is for him to return without re-injuring his ankle.
In Addo-Carr's place, the Bulldogs have named uncapped Queensland product Blake Wilson on the wing.
The injury dents the Bulldogs' hopes of returning to the winner's circle.
Canterbury players have admitted to feeling embarrassed by last week's loss to Canberra, in which they were beaten through the middle and outplayed early.
"The review was pretty hard to sit through for them," Ciraldo said.
"We were obviously disappointed, not so much with the result but the performance."
Ciraldo will stick with bringing young gun Karl Oloapu off the bench and starting Josh Reynolds at five-eighth, as part of the 18-year-old's ongoing development.
At some stage though, the switch will be made for Oloapu to start.
"It's week by week at the moment," Ciraldo said.
"Right now, we think Josh's experience and his level of competitiveness is the best thing for our team. And he's doing a really good job getting games set up for us.
"Karl's only 18 but he's certainly taking a lot of lessons on board in the time he's playing at the moment. He's building that knowledge base.
"We're excited about what the future holds, but right now what's best for the team is Grub (Reynolds) starting in that position and easing Karl into the game."
8°C