INEVITABLY, news out of the Scotland camp this summer has been dominated by injuries, players dropping out, Alex Dunbar off to America to try to sort his knee out in time and others fighting to play in the warm-up games.

Strangely, given that he is not exactly easy to miss, at the opposite extreme has been the giant figure of Richie Gray, but hardly anybody seemed to have noticed.

He is back, not only fit after a miserable spring, but raring to go, relishing the competition and desperate to prove himself all over again to the coaching group.

There is a good argument for suggesting that the rot set in during Scotland's Six Nations campaign after their defeat by Wales. It was a match where confidence was sapped by mistakes that let the opposition in for cheap scores, it also produced the Finn Russell citing and was the game where Gray, who had started alongside his younger brother, Jonny, tore his bicep muscle.

There are some players in the side with ready-made replacements, but when you are 6ft 9in and nearly 20 stone, as Gray is, you are not going to be one of them and the loss of his dynamic power was clearly a factor in the forward struggles for the rest of the tournament.

On the last day of the French season however, rather overshadowed in Scotland by Glasgow Warriors beating Ulster the same weekend to win a place in the Guinness PRO12 final, his months of misery came to an end when he got 15 minutes, or so, of action for Castres and his second Rugby World Cup campaign could start in earnest. It may not seem like much, but as he points out after an injury like that you are never totally sure how it will react until you have tested it in match conditions, as he has now done.

"I made it back right on time - 12 weeks. The 12th week was the last game of the season and I played. It has been getting better from then on, just a few after-effects from being out so long," he said, now back at Murrayfield and helping to launch the new World Cup kit in a break from the latest phase of the national team's preparations.

"I'm pretty tired. I'm sure it has been said by the other guys - it has been a tough first two weeks but I'm all the better for that. It just gives you a bit of confidence and makes sure that everything is working fine."

Last week, training at altitude in the Pyrenees, was a bit of a shock to the system, certainly a long way from anything he has experience in his French club: "We did go to the French mountains but we went to a golf course," he said. "So it was slightly different, a game of golf not a hike up a mountain, though talking to Strokes [Alasdair Strokosch], the Perpignan boys use Font Romeu quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, it was tough, but I think I can speak for all the boys and say it was definitely worthwhile.

"I've been liaising with the guys here [at Murrayfield] keeping tabs on things so when I got back I was not too far off - a bit away where I would like to be but not too far. Now, it is good to have three weeks under my belt and hopefully get back on a level playing field."

Back in Scotland, the training has stepped up again but, despite the extra work, there is no legacy from the torn muscle, allowing Gray to relish the chance to hone his skills while still working on strength and fitness: "The strength and conditioning focus in France not quite as big [as in the UK] but they do like to get you out on the field touching a rugby ball and doing all sorts," he observed.

"It is nice the way we are doing it here, where you can focus on getting your fitness right, getting your strength right, but not feel you have not seen a rugby ball for four weeks at time. At the end of the day we play rugby, we are not meant to spend all our time in the gym."

It is all important to Gray. So far all he has known is World Cup heartache as part of the first Scotland squad to fail to make it beyond the pool stage when the tournament was held four years ago in New Zealand. "As you get older and have been around for a bit longer, you gain more experience. The last World Cup was ultimately very disappointing and we would like to rectify things. I will do everything I possibly can to be as good as I can. That is my focus," he added.