ANDY Murray pushed himself through the pain barrier in Glasgow this weekend to book Great Britain's first Davis Cup final appearance since 1978. Now it is his accountant who may soon be wincing with agony.

With the increasing possibility that opponents Belgium will play the tie on a clay court at the Flanders Expo Arena in Ghent on the weekend of November 27-29, the World No 3 has admitted there is a "question mark" over his participation at the ATP World Tour finals at the o2 Arena in London the preceding week.

His team were adamant that no decisions had been made in this regard yet but, post-back surgery in late 2013, the younger Murray sibling requires additional practice time to transition to clay court play and so totemic has the cause of leading Britain to their first Davis Cup win since 1936 become that he has hinted he could be prepared to sacrifice the London showpiece to follow Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the list of world class players who have inspired their respective nations to glory in the world cup of tennis. While nations have a fortnight to officially name their venue, the Davis Cup committee will meet today to rubber stamp the venue and surface. The prize money up for grabs for an unbeaten run to victory at the o2 comes in at an eye-watering £1.22m.

Leon Smith, the Great Britain Davis Cup captain, admitted it was all quite a dilemma. "It is not ideal going into a final," said Smith, on the theoretical possibility of Murray playing on a hard court in London until the Sunday before the tie. "You would want as much time as possible on the surface given that traditionally it does take Andy a while to transition between surfaces. It wouldn't be ideal - but he has done it before. And the good thing is that his medical team are now so switched on about what he needs to do, they know really well how to make that shift. It will be interesting to see what they do."

While Belgium's top singles duo of Steve Darcis and their star player David Goffin, the World No 16, are both comfortable on a clay court, Smith feels it may be counterproductive for the Belgians if they opt to play the tie on that surface. Murray, after all, reached the semi-finals of the French Open earlier this year. “It will be the first away tie we’ve faced this year," said Smith. "We’ve had the significant bonus of being at home each time, which makes a big difference in Davis Cup.

“They’ve got David Goffin, who is one of the best younger players on Tour and could be top 10 when we face them," he added. "Even against Andy, he’ll be dangerous. They’ve got a couple of experienced guys. Steve Darcis is very experienced and they have a good team spirit. Ruben Bemelmans had a good win against Gilles Muller at the US Open. He’s a good left hander, which is something different. They are going to be tough.

"They could put a clay court down but I’m not sure how much that would suit their players. But obviously, that would be our least favourite surface. It depends how much they think about us as opposed to thinking about themselves.”

Smith had no shortage of difficult decisions to make last weekend, disappointing James Ward and Kyle Edmund with an 11th hour call-up for Dan Evans for the second singles spot, and if all goes to plan he will have further difficult decisions to make for this one. The Ljubljana-born Aljaz Bedene, who is British No 2 by the numbers, is comfortable on clay also, and could come into contention in the event that the ITF overturn a ruling that he is unable to play for Britain after playing a couple of dead rubbers for Slovenia. Smith corralled them all together in the locker room on Sunday evening prior to them catching various trains, planes and automobiles to various outposts in the tennis world and told them to do everything in their power to earn a final call-up.

“If he’s available, that’s good," said Smith. "It gives us another option. Andy and Jamie have earned their spots on the team, obviously. They are there by right, but the rest of the players? What an opportunity. I don’t what will happen with Bedene, but James, Kyle and Evo just have to knuckle down and do anything they possibly can - in terms of practice, training and schedule. They need to fight like hell and put their head above the parapet to be picked. It would be great to go into the tie with a selection issue based on really strong form.

"For all these players, Andy included, this is now the No 1 target," he added. "There’s going to be disappointment again. Some of them aren’t going to get picked but that’s life. But they have to fight like hell for it and if they do, it gives us a better opportunity of winning the final.”

While many have played their part in this team's journey from the brink of the fourth tier of this competition during Smith's tenure, the heights of the next few months are so great that the captain has yet to address what might happen in the aftermath. Would the World No 3, in the event he has a Davis Cup title under his belt, retain the same enthusiasm for the national cause or narrow his focus again on the latter stages of his individual career?

“Honestly, that would be okay as well," said Smith. "We did that when I first took over and it was good for the other players. I have no idea what Andy will think about next year. No-one is looking past the final."