I've seen a few solutions to this funcionality request for versions of Magento < 1.7 but none for the version I am using. Since in v1.7 the navigation template was moved from `top.phtml` to `\app\design\frontend\THEME\TEMPLATENAME\template\page\html\topmenu.phtml` the solutions I have seen are no longer applicable.

I just want to be able to output the category image (uploaded through the admin interface) within the native category menu dropdown. The dropdown structure and layout is done and works as I want it, minus the image.