At 31, he has spent most of his life indoors piling hour upon hour in the pursuit of Olympic gold. He has stood on the podium at four major championships, once - in Rio three years ago - a World Championship bronze and three times for the same colour of medal at European championships. This week he is in Tokyo preparing for the World Championships where he bids for glory tomorrow in the Under-81kg event but already he has one eye on London 2012. There was disappointment at the last Olympic Games in Beijing but there were underlying reasons. "Before Beijing I had a problem and we found out I had a cyst in my shoulder which came about because I tore something in my rotator cuff," he explained. "As the cyst got bigger, it affected the nerves on my neck and gave me referred pain through my arm. "They couldn't operate before Beijing because it would mean six to nine months out of the sport and it was too close to risk that. I had the cyst removed after that and that kept me off the mat for a few months late 2008 and early 2009. "It was probably a good thing as it gives you the hunger back. It's very frustrating at the time but, if you're going to have time off, the best time is after the biggest event every four years. "If you're going to go hard for the next four years, it's probably not a bad time to recharge the batteries. "The way I see it, an injury is a chance to come back stronger not come back weaker. It also gave me an opportunity to analyse my judo. "It sounds ridiculous when you're full-time job is to be a judo player but sometimes you don't have time to step back and break it down to basics as you're just chasing tournament after tournament. You don't have the time between tournaments to break it all down." The injury also gave him a rare opportunity to get outdoors - cycling and running to build up his endurance and the results since returning have been encouraging to say the least. He won gold at the Tokyo Grand Slam last December, silver at the grand prix in Germany and then his third European bronze in Vienna. The win in Japan, the home of judo, was particularly pleasing. "It was a big highlight - not just of last year - but of my whole career. It is such a prestigious event," the Edinburgh player outlined."One of the really good things was that, not only was I the only British player to have won the tournament but I later realised I was the only non-Asian man ever to have won that middleweight category. "European judo is so strong - France, Germany, Spain Portugal, Russia and all the ex-Soviet states - that to be the only man to win it outside of Asia is a big deal. "The crowd don't expect it in Tokyo but they also appreciate that their sport has expanded so much that it is now a massive worldwide sport."