Many people say they would give an arm and a leg to represent their country.

Most people say that figuratively.

Matthew Dawson is clearly not most people.

The 30-year-old, three-time Olympian shocked his teammates last week by choosing to remove part of his right ring finger to play at the Games.

After suffering a nasty finger injury when being struck by a hockey stick in an inter-squad match in Perth two weeks ago, Dawson underwent surgery to remove the finger at the knuckle.

On the Kookaburras' pre-Paris Games podcast, Parlez Vous Hockey, Dawson said he thought his hopes of competing at a third successive Games were over.

ABC Sport will be live blogging every day of the Paris Olympics from July 27

Due to a 2018 injury to his eye socket, during which he was lucky to keep his eye, Dawson had contact details for a plastic surgeon.

The surgeon advised that the best outcome would be to "take the top" off the finger and be fit to play within 10 days.

Dawson said he was told that had he opted for a fix, there was no guarantee that he would be able to regain full function.

Despite being warned by his wife not to do anything "rash", Dawson underwent the surgery.

"With all the information I had to make the decision, in a pretty short period of time, I still decided to take it and I can still have a pretty good functioning life with just a little less finger to worry about," he said.

"The story has blown up a lot more than I thought it would to be honest with you."

Dawson said the fact he was reaching the end of his international career played a part in his decision.

"I'm definitely closer to the end of my career than the start and, who knows, this could be my last [Olympics], and if I felt that I could still perform at my best, then that's what I was going to do," he said.

"If taking the top of my finger was the price I had to pay, that's what I would do.

"I am very fortunate that I had the choice to decide what I did and am very, very fortunate to be here.

"Fingers crossed we get the gold in the end, it's not a really big price to pay then."

Aran Zalewski said Dawson's decision certainly caused some ripples within the team, but acknowledged it was probably an easy decision.

"There was a bit of shock within the team," Zalewski said at a press conference in Paris.

"We didn't really know what to think, and then we heard that he went to the hospital and chopped his finger off, which was pretty interesting because I know people would give an arm and a leg and even a little bit of finger to be here sometimes.

"When you've spent a lifetime of choice and sacrifice to come and compete at the highest level, I think for him it was an easy decision. 

"We've got his back. We're fully supportive of his decision."

Zalewski said Dawson was "absolutely fine" while playing for the team in a practice game on Monday.

"It's great to see that his finger is going to be all right and he'll be able to play with us throughout the tournament," Zalewski said.