When Sol Bamba lay in bed for four days straight, his body shattered by a first round of chemotherapy and his mind momentarily beaten, days like this seemed an impossibility.
This afternoon, live on BBC One, the 37-year-old will be part of a Middlesbrough team attempting to make it a hat-trick of Premier League scalps when facing Chelsea in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
To get here, they needed Bamba to score during a penalty-shootout victory at Manchester United in the fourth round. He then helped see out a 1-0 win over Spurs to set up this tie against the European champions.