Alex Ferguson faces an anxious 48 hours sweating on the fitness of Roy Keane after the Manchester United captain limped out of the FA Cup win at Old Trafford.
The 31-year-old has already missed four months of the campaign after undergoing hip surgery at the beginning of September and the impact of his absence today was clear to see after suffering a hamstring strain which forced him off at the interval.
With Keane at the helm, United had stormed through the Portsmouth barricades and threatened to overwhelm the Nationwide League title hopefuls long before Steve Stone's close-range effort had dragged them back into the game.
Yet, forced to operate without their inspirational captain, the Red Devils became sloppy and would have been pegged back completely had Nigel Quashie not blazed over when racing clear to confront Roy Carroll 15 minutes from time.
"We missed Roy's drive in the second half," Ferguson said afterwards. "He came off with a hamstring strain but we will have to assess it in the morning before we know what the damage is."
Having regained some of the ground lost by those successive Christmas defeats at Blackburn and Middlesbrough, Ferguson will not want to be without the man he values more than any other in his multi-million pound squad.
And, with the resumption of United's Champions League quest just over a month away, the United chief is unlikely to take any short-term risk at the expense of Keane's long-term fitness.