Three months short of his 34th birthday and with a record 109 Scotland appearances to his name, Chris Paterson does not shirk the fact that his Test career is much closer to its end than its beginning.

But the man who has also scored more Test points (809) than any other Scot in history may soon have to face the possibility that the clock is ticking even faster than he thought.

As gifted an all-rounder as he is, Paterson's place in the Scotland side over the past few years has been due largely – although not exclusively – to his goal-kicking. Robbed of that attribute, the case for his inclusion in the national team is much weakened.

Yet with the 2012 RBS 6 Nations championship kicking off in just over seven weeks' time, Paterson has not taken a kick at goal, or even practised such a kick, since October. The full-back aggravated a long-standing groin problem towards the end of the World Cup and, while the rest of his game has been in good shape, he has been unable to do the one thing that has earned him global acclaim.

In his place, Greig Laidlaw has carried prime responsibility for kicking Edinburgh's points in recent weeks – and has been doing so with almost Patersonesque levels of accuracy. Laidlaw's strike rate is not far short of 90%, a figure made all the more impressive by the fact that Edinburgh's expansive style means that few of his opportunities crop up straight in front of the posts.

Paterson plays down the issue, but it is not exactly rocket science to figure out that he will struggle to make the Scotland team if he cannot bring his kicking boots to the party. And it is even more obvious still that time is against him as he struggles to recover the gift that has made him the most reliable source of points Scotland has ever had.

Jonny Wilkinson's retirement earlier this week adds a poignant backdrop to Paterson's plight, for rugby has never known two men so evenly matched in their obsession with the art of propelling a ball between two posts.

Paterson played in all four of Scotland's World Cup matches – he was in the starting line-up for all but the Georgia game – but he suffered a tear in his groin in the build-up to the ultimately decisive defeat by England. As he pointed out, however, all those years in the game and all those relentless sessions on training pitches provided the underlying cause of his problem.

"I've had it [the injury] for about six years, on and off," he explained. "Basically, I've had a bad hip and groin due to the repetition of kicking practice and then I got a fresh tear in the groin towards the end of the World Cup.

"The [medical staff] are managing that pretty well. It's still sore, but I feel as if it is coming along. I feel that my all-round performances are good at the moment, so it's not holding me back in that way.

"My last kick at goal was leading up to the Leinster game [October 28] in my first week back at Edinburgh. I could only do four or five and then had to stop. It's because of my style, really, the way I come across a ball. I keep testing it and testing it, but it's not right at the moment."

If Paterson cannot make his case for selection for Scotland's Six Nations opener against England at Murrayfield on February 4, then the most obvious first port of call for national coach Andy Robinson would be Rory Lamont, the full-back who has just returned to Glasgow.

However, Stuart Hogg, the 19-year-old who won a man-of-the-match award for the Warriors against Montpellier last weekend, has been making a powerful case for promotion to the Test arena. Meanwhile, Hugo Southwell, who missed the World Cup due to injury, has been in impressive form for Wasps since his move from Stade Francais.

Paterson looks likely to take his customary place at full-back in the Edinburgh side which takes on Cardiff Blues in their Heineken Cup pool 2 match at Murrayfield tomorrow evening. Intriguingly, Laidlaw, the club captain, now looks set to start the game at fly-half, the position to which he moved from scrum-half for a handful of games at the end of last season, with impressive results.

Laidlaw has been moved to the playmaker position for Edinburgh and club coach Michael Bradley appears to have concluded that his off-the-cuff style of play is what the capital side will need against the blitz defence of the Blues. Edinburgh lost 25-8 to the Welsh side last weekend, but there is confidence in the squad that they can reverse that result on home soil.

With Ruaridh Jackson's ownership of the Scotland No.10 jersey by no means a given at the moment, a good performance by Laidlaw could do more than help Edinburgh's chances of reaching the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. He could, in short, also propel himself into the international reckoning as a fly-half, a remarkable achievement after winning two caps at scrum-half.

Paterson is too long in the tooth to concern himself with such permutations. After 12 seasons at Edinburgh, making a mark in Europe is perhaps the one big ambition he has left.

"We reached the Heineken Cup quarter-finals in 2004 and we've had some good wins along the way," he said. "There was a time when we seemed to beat the previous champions every year – Wasps, Toulouse, Leinster. We've had big wins and big performances, but that consistency has not really come through.

"It's an intense competition. We want to win on Friday and give ourselves a real opportunity to go further."