There are quite a few examples of athletes competing on a world class level with hernias and then having surgery during the off-season. Tim Lobinger pole vaulted on a bilateral hernia throughout the 2007 season (SB of 5.83), for example, and if there is any athletics event that is demanding on your abdominal and groin region it’s the pole vault.
BTW: Lobinger described this injury as migraine in his pants, which hints at the annoying rather than debilitating nature of this condition.
Let’s wait and see what Gay doesn in London before drawing any conclusions.