HAMMER hero Mark Dry is trying his new Scotland vest out for size. Designed by Spanish kit manufacturers Joma, it is an outfit which hopefully he gets to wear for many years to come, although such an outcome is hardly guaranteed.
With the double Commonwealth Games bronze medallist is set to find out in the next 24 to 48 hours if he is to get the green light for serious hip surgery in four weeks’ time, he has learned to treat every opportunity to compete for his country as if it is his last. That is precisely how he will treat the Loughborough International meet on May 20.
The main dilemma, which will be resolved in discussions with scottishathletics and Commonwealth Games Scotland, is whether he can afford to wait for a pioneering new ceramic hip design to come into operation. Or whether he can afford not to.
But with the clock ticking on his plans to compete for a medal at Rio on 2020, one thing Dry knows for sure is that he can’t afford to wait around for too long.
“Hopefully in the next 24-48 hours I should have a go, or a no go, and then it is up to where I find the funding from,” said Dry, who risked limb if not life when throwing caution to the wind to take bronze in the Gold Coast with his final round effort.
“We are now looking at resurfacing and there are a few options,” he added. “We can go metal, which is long established, or we can wait for the ceramic one, but it isn’t ready. If we go with the metal option and go now, within four weeks it will be in out, season over, so I will get Loughborough done, Halle done, and then that will be the season over.
“If I wait much longer, I am not going to have a winter so I am not going to have a good season next season,” he added. “While next season doesn’t concern me that much, I need as much time as possible if I am going to be serious about Tokyo and I am not going there just to make up the numbers.
“I don’t know how much it will cost, I have not had a quote, but obviously it is not cheap. It is more the room, because in a private hospital it can be about two grand a day and I am going to have to be there for five or six days.
“The surgeons have told me how hard the surgery is going to be, the guy is going to have to do a lot of pulling in there. It is going to feel like I am being kicked by a horse for a month. He thinks I can get off the crutches in eight weeks, back training in four months.
“I’ve got no concerns about coming back, although I know it is going to be painful, a long process. I am quite happy to take the six months out, spend the winter doing rehab, have a mediocre season probably in order to have a really good season in 2020. I really believe I can do that, throw 77, 78, 79, 80.
“So why am I still doing Loughborough? Well, not in a negative way, because I fully believe in the surgery. But say for whatever reason something goes wrong with the surgery, and I am never able to throw again, that will be the last time I am ever able to pull on a Scotland vest. And Halle will be the last time I am ever able to wear a GB vest. It is a hard honour to pass up. And say the surgery isn’t ready and I need to get to the Europeans, I am going to need to get into some of these competitions and chase qualifying standards.”
For a man whose career hangs in the balance, there is a cheerfulness about the way Dry is facing his fate. This weekend, for instance, he was back in Moray, meeting family and being strong-armed into some impromptu assistance to his old air cadet pals. “It was quiet, a family affair - just a quick trip,” he said. “I had a family barbecue, then some kids from the school come up and see me when I was having my barbecue and ask me some questions so I had to stand out the front of my house and do that.
“Then I saw my old air cadet squadron, who forced me into athletics when I didn’t want to do it,” he added. “One of the local guys saw me about and messaged me to go down, so I went down there on the Sunday to hand out medals. My old commanding officer and stuff like that. I saw the sights, went fishing for a bit, had another barbecue and a bottle of wine.”
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