IT may have been a brave decision, but Matt Scott, the Scotland centre, admits a problem shoulder meant he could not do himself justice in the Six Nations.
The good news for the team's supporters is his assurance that the most recent surgery has worked and he should be back to his best in time for the World Cup warm-up matches.
It had been as miserable couple of years for Scott, who dislocated his left shoulder, then needed an operation on the other one. He came back and played a few games only for problems to crop up again in the left, forcing him to miss the end of the season.
"I probably did it before the Six Nations," he admitted. "I missed the first game against France because my shoulder was playing up, but then it got better enough to play. In a perfect world, medically, I probably would not have played but I wanted to. I was so eager because I had spent such a long time out. Then Alex [Dunbar, the Glasgow centre] got injured and I felt a responsibility to step up - plus you are not going to turn down a chance to play for your country.
"When I was back in the Six Nations, my shoulder was giving me a bit of gyp and I feel like I played way under where I should be playing. Everything I tried to do was inhibited by my shoulder, I just felt I could not put in a good performance. In the last game against Ireland I took another bang on it and that was the final straw. I tried to come back and train with Edinburgh but it was not right at all.
"I am glad I made the decision to get more surgery on it. Physically with rugby nowadays, if you are not physically near the top you are going to struggle on the pitch, no matter how sharp you are feeling skills-wise. My body was just not able to do what I wanted it to do. It has been tough, I wanted to keep positive and control everything I can control."
Within a few days of that final match, he was back in hospital not knowing whether it was going to require more major reconstruction, which would have made the World Cup touch and go, or just a few minor repairs and a clean-up, making the warm-up matches a realistic target. Luckily for him, it was the latter.
"I got the all-clear a week ago," he said "I had a test at the hospital, strength and endurance in it, and it was way better than it was last time I came back from the last operation. I don't know what that meant but I do know I am stronger than the last time I came back, which is a comfort.
"It has gone to plan so far, it has been really good. I have still got a long way to go to get match fit but I have put in a good block of upper-body weights which I literally haven't been able to do for 18 months, not able to lift any sort of weights in the gym. I have a good block of that, which has give me a bit of confidence, a bit of size, so I feel good."
One thing that was never even the most remote temptation was to go down the line of Darren Eales, the Preston Lodge prop banned for two years earlier this week on a drugs violation. "A few of the boys have been talking about that," Scott said. "I mean if you are at this level, people think you must be offered it but there is absolutely nothing that I have come across in my whole life offering me anything. Guys at this level know you just can't. It is not worth the risk. You just can't do it. It does not cross anybody's mind.
"Guys in the lower leagues sometimes think they are not going to get tested. It is a shame he isn't going to be able to play for a couple of years but it is an important lesson. It is great that the SRU and the doping authorities take such a strict policy line on it. It is unfair, it is cheating and there is no place for it in the game."
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