ONE man’s recovery is often another man’s setback in sport. A player’s return from injury, for example, often means a return to the bench or the reserves for another. The case is more complicated for Richie Vernon, who has to hope that the recovery of three men does not produce an irreversible setback for his hopes of playing for Scotland at the Rugby World Cup.

Alex Dunbar, Mark Bennett and Matt Scott – all, like Vernon, centres – should now be available for the tournament. Dunbar ruptured a knee ligament in March, but is up and running again, while Bennett and Scott are coming back from shoulder surgery. Saracens centre Duncan Taylor has been ruled out of the squad, again because of a shoulder injury, but the return of that talented trio has called into question Vernon’s inclusion in the final squad of 31.

For the time being at least, though, the 28-year-old former back-row forward is still with the expanded squad, and battling to convince Vern Cotter that he deserves inclusion when the cut comes. He is confident that everyone will be judged on their merits, and that he will be given the opportunity during the four warm-up games to state his case for a place.

“If I’m being honest about it, coming into the squad I was definitely behind a few other guys,” the Glasgow Warriors player says. “I would say I’d have been an outside shot, but with the way it’s been so far and hopefully the chances in the four warm-up games, I think everyone has got a chance. If you play well I think you’ve got a great chance to go to the World Cup.

“At centre we have a huge amount of competition with guys who haven’t played a lot towards the end of last season. So form is going to come into it a lot as well and fitness.

“There are a lot of question marks, I’m sure, for the coaching staff, but as with anything if you play well and put your hand up for selection then you give yourself a great chance to go. It’s impossible to predict what’s going on in the coaches’ minds, so all you can do is go out and do the best you can in training and, when you get the opportunity in games, play as best you can.”

Bennett and Dunbar are team-mates of Vernon’s at Glasgow, and he knows Edinburgh centre Scott almost as well. He is well aware of their talents, but believes he can offer something different.

“Alex has been on brilliant form for the last couple of years, and Mark and Matt, who haven’t played as much over the past year, have been the guys that have been playing for Scotland and doing really well. So they will start ahead, because the coaches know what they can do and they’ve been doing it for a couple of years. But form is a huge thing and you can play yourself into squads like this. There are always a couple of surprises.

“You could say that we all offer something different. So it’s up to what the coaches want, and I’ll be trying to play my game and do what I do well and if that’s what they want then brilliant.

“I know that carrying ball and getting the team over the gain line is something I’m comfortable doing. It’s something I’ve done a lot for my clubs and Scotland as a No 8 through the years, and when I did change position that was the part of the game at centre that came most naturally to me.

“So that’s definitely something I will be trying to do as well as I possibly can to show the coaching staff that it’s something that can be very useful to the team.”

Finn Russell, for one, would not write Vernon off. Having worked with the centre at Glasgow, the Scotland stand-off is aware that he has a style of his own that can pose different problems for defences.

“It has been tough for him having Mark and Alex there, but he got his chance and took it during the run-in to the end of the season,” Russell said.

“He’s tall and rangy but he’s strong, and having played No 8 he is good at carrying the ball. You have the physicality of a back row outside you, but also the skills of a back.

“He’s got quite long arms so he can brush guys off; he’ll take guys on the outside, and hand them off to go through the gap. You know if you give him the ball in a bit of space he is guaranteed to make something, and if there is not much space he will make yards. That is great for a 10 to have outside you. It gives me a lot more options.”

The strength in depth in the position gives Cotter more options too – at least for the time being. When the time comes to cut the squad in early September, the key for Vernon could be how many centres the coach opts to keep.