Stoke City: Forget Ray Mears, Danny's a true survivor
The 29-year-old has stayed up, and been relegated, enough to know his way around the terrain and how to avoid being trampled by the big beasts.
The bad news is Higginbotham reckons survival in the world's richest league gets harder every season.
However, he's also confident he can stay up with Stoke this season, just as he did at Sunderland last year.
He wasn't peering through the undergrowth when we met at Stoke's Michelin training ground, merely the assorted socks, trainers and designer jeans as he cleared a space on a dressing room benches.
Stoke didn't own these facilities when Higginbotham decided to go 12 months ago. But then so much about the club has progressed since the defender left a side which wasn't fancied by the bookies to even make the Championship play-offs.
Having won promotion without Higginbotham, there were some fans who questioned whether Tony Pulis should have brought back his former captain.
That didn't worry Pulis, who was determined to bring back a player he trusts and knows can cut it at this level.
Should he get into the side against Everton on Sunday, Higginbotham will be representing his fifth club in the Premier League.
A career which began at Manchester United also took in top-flight stays at Derby and Southampton before his season with Sunderland last term.
He played 22 games for the Black Cats, enough to know the Premier was a tougher league than the one he left when Southampton were relegated in 2005.
He said: "It was definitely harder, it had come on a lot.
"I had been out of the Premier for two years before I went to Sunderland and the standards and the speed gets better each year.
"There's more money coming into clubs. They are bringing in some of the best players in the world and there are good youngsters coming through each year.
"When we stayed up at Sunderland the feeling was more relief than anything.
"It was something that had been on our shoulders for a long time. You would finish a game and, straight away, be looking for other scores.
"We stayed up with two games to spare, which was a great achievement. You speak to other people, though, and they will say just staying in the Premier League isn't much of an achievement."
There won't be many of that opinion in the Potteries if Stoke are still a top-flight side at the end of their final game, at Arsenal on May 24.
Sunderland were the only one of the promoted sides to stay up last season and, if the bookies are to be believed, none of this year's promoted trio will last longer than a season.
Higginbotham added: "If you don't have the belief, you've had it. The minute you start thinking to yourself 'we're going down' you might as well give up and throw the game.
"No matter who you play against, you go into it thinking you can win every game.
"There will be games when it will be difficult to get anything, but one of the main advantages here at Stoke is how well we will be organised. That always gives us a great chance."
Higginbotham didn't have a fall out with Roy Keane at Sunderland, but was keen to work with Pulis again.
The Stoke boss is the 14th first-team manager of the defender's career, a journey which began when he came through the youth side at Manchester United.
He played seven first-team games for United, but decided to leave his hometown club when Derby came in with a £2m bid in 2000.
He said: "I'd played a couple of games, but then in the summer Sir Alex Ferguson rang me to say Derby's bid had been accepted.
"I was always of the opinion that, if someone doesn't want you to go, they'll say you're going nowhere.
"If they give you an option then I think it's time to move on. You never know what could have happened if I stayed, I could have rotted in the reserves."
Derby stayed up in Higginbotham's first season, finishing fourth from bottom under Jim Smith.
However, they went down the following year before Gordon Strachan took Higginbotham to Southampton in January 2003 for £1.5m.
Higginbotham added: "It was difficult in that first season at Derby, but we won at Old Trafford to stay up.
"We didn't have the world's best players, but what we did have was a group of lads with an unbelievable togetherness.
"Rory Delap was with me there and the spirit that squad had was the main reason we stayed up.
"But in the second season we ended up having four different managers (Smith, Colin Todd, Billy McEwan and John Gregory) and it was a struggle.
"We thought we were getting out of it in March, but I don't think we got another point.
"I then went to Southampton who were on the crest of a wave. We finished eighth, got into the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup final.
"The following year we finished 12th. It was the same as at Derby in that we had no superstars, but had lads who worked their socks off for each other.
"But again, we ended up being relegated after having three managers in a year (Paul Sturrock, Steve Wigley and Harry Redknapp)."
So the moral of the story is, if you want to survive, don't change the manager?
"Well, just don't change him three times," added Higginbotham, who traces the Saints' decline to Strachan's departure in February 2004.
He said: "I thought Gordon Strachan was absolutely brilliant at Southampton.
"He was great at getting the best out of players. He had us going to places like Anfield and winning with teams which, on paper, were no comparison to Liverpool.
"He and Jim Smith were both very good man-managers who wouldn't think twice about having a laugh with you.
"If you did something wrong they'd tell you, but it would be forgotten on the Monday.
"Both were very similar in how they cared for the players' wellbeing and asked how their families were. As a player that helps a lot.
"Also, the players knew where they stood. If they did something wrong, fair enough, they would get criticism.
"If they get something right, they would get praise.
"When I left Southampton for Stoke there was a very similar atmosphere here.
"There was a great group of lads, good players who would give everything for each other.
"If you have a great set of people around you, you have a good chance whatever you do in life."
Higginbotham expects to find just the same dressing-room spirit as he settles into his second spell at the Britannia.
Some old faces remain, and he knows some of the new boys having faced them in the Premier last year.
Dave Kitson even scored against him when Reading lost 2-1 at the Stadium of Light last September.
In the interests of balance, we should also point out that Higginbotham scored against a Newcastle side which included Abdoulaye Faye in a 1-1 draw at Sunderland in November.
Higginbotham added: "Dave Kitson is physically strong, so whoever he plays against will know they are in for a game.
"If you give him half a yard he will get his shot in. That shows in his goals record.
"He has to be tightly marked, but that's going to be difficult for defenders again this season.
"There's also Ibrahima Sonko who is a good, very physical defender who communicates very well.
"Abdoulaye Faye is another great signing. A physical lad who can play in a few positions. People who have played with him have told me what a good player he is."
Higginbotham knows he isn't guaranteed a place, but preferred to take his chances with Stoke rather than drop into the Championship with Wolves.
He said: "One of the main reasons I went to Sunderland last year was the chance to play Premier League football.
"Also, I know the manager here and a lot of the players are still the same. I know how fanatical the fans are so everything mixed in to one meant the opportunity to come back was a huge thing for me."
Some may still have to be won over having been fiercely critical of his decision to leave for Sunderland.
However, plenty have welcomed back a player who was an outstanding performer and leader for a season with Stoke before he found the lure of the Premier with Sunderland too great.
The most important thing is he's back and determined to use his experience to make sure Stoke are still playing Premier League football next season.
Forget last summer. Tony Pulis brought Higginbotham back precisely because the defender is a big-game hunter.
MAIN MAN: Danny Higginbotham sports his trophy at the Britannia Stadium after being voted Stoke City's player of the year for 2006/07.
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