Pape Souare’s beaming smile will cut through the gloom of Crystal Palace’s season when he completes a remarkable comeback a year after cheating death in a horrific car accident near Heathrow Airport.
As thousands of fans prepare to greet a favourite son with an outpouring of support and emotion, only the 27-year-old will truly know how lucky he is to pull on a Palace shirt again, against Huddersfield on Tuesday night in the League Cup.
Many people will have seen pictures of the wreckage after his Mercedes had hit the M4 central reservation and wondered how anyone could recover sufficiently to resume their careers at a Premier League club.