  We present Keck K-band photometry and low-resolution H & K-band spectroscopy
of the X-ray nova GRO J0422+32 obtained while the system was in the quiescent
state. No clear ellipsoidal modulation is present in the light curve, which is
instead dominated by a strong flickering component. In the K-band we observe
strong Br_gamma emission, with an equivalent width of 38 +/- 5 Angstroms. From
this we conclude that the accretion disc is the most likely source of the
observed photometric contamination, and that previous infrared-based attempts
to constrain the mass of the putative black hole in this system are prone to
considerable uncertainty. We finally proceed to show how it is possible to
place meaningful constraints on some of the binary parameters of this system,
even in the presence of a relatively high level of contamination from the disc.
