Along with standard cricketing equipment and other touring paraphernalia, Rahul Dravid has constantly been carrying something around for the last four years. Unlike the other items, however, it does not fit into any conventional piece of luggage, primarily because of what it is - a ruptured shoulder cartilage.

A diagnosis by Dr Joe de Beer, a shoulder specialist practicing in Cape Town, has cleared Dravid to play in the forthcoming three-Test series against South Africa. But Dr de Beer added a disturbing rider, saying that Dravid ran the risk of aggravating the injury further.

Some contradictions figure in the news reports, however. Although the good doctor has advocated that Dravid be made to field only in close-in positions, as stressing the shoulder by throwing from the boundary can hardly do any good, Dravid himself asserted that he "can be asked to throw from any part of the ground."

While that statement can possibly be ascribed to rhetoric as part of the team management's efforts at inspiring confidence, why the injury has been neglected for a shocking length of time remains a mystery.

Team manager MK Bhargava attempted to project the problem as inevitable with any player involved in a "throwing sport." His other remarks shed even less light. "Rahul has been complaining of a niggle in his right shoulder interminably for four years. His obvious discomfort, however, has not prevented him from participating and performing in international cricket," Bhargava told rediff.com.

If the player has had enough cause to complain "interminably" about his physical condition in the past, and if he has experienced "obvious discomfort," one should think that immediate and thorough medical examinations are called for, especially in the case of a player such as Dravid, who is so essential to the success of the Indian team.

Team physiotherapist Andrew Leipus, for his part, said that he was aware of the condition, but never considered it to be serious at any time. "It was only a niggle, and you don't make reports to the Board on any niggle a cricketer develops," said Leipus.

If the physio did not include it in his reports, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would have had little means of finding out about such physical aberrations through any other means. Yet Dravid himself must have thought about it more than the team management seem to have done, for Dr de Beer said that the batsman "went to see a surgeon in England last year, but the injury could not be properly diagonised."

There is also a clash of statements as far as the need for surgery is concerned. While the doctor has said that Dravid "possibly will go under the surgeon's knife," the team management, paradoxically enough, is taking refuge behind medical jargon. "In the event the pathology degenerates in future, surgical management may become necessary," said Bhargava.

For the present, Dravid has been prescribed throwing exercises and physical therapy that should lessen the pain in his shoulder. Dr de Beer also floated the possibility of surgery or treatment immediately after the Test series. The post-operative healing period for such operations, however, is a minimum of four months; if Dravid, therefore, does decide to stay back for surgery, he would definitely be ruled out of the home series against England.

The importance of Dravid's solid presence in the Indian batting line-up is undoubted, especially for a Test series that is sure to summon his inexhaustible reserves of patience, fortitude and technique. As grudgingly, therefore, as the Indian cricket fan is forced to accept that this is one occasion when Dravid will have to play through his pain, it is difficult not to feel rightful ire at the careless ignorance of this injury that ultimately forced him to have that "precautionary scan" in Cape Town.

© CricInfo