Aleksandar Mitrovic may have been pictured leaving the field with a bandaged right foot, after scoring his 50th goal for Serbia, but the Fulham striker will be desperate to play against Newcastle United on Saturday. It won't have escaped Mitrovic's attention, after all, that he has never scored against his former side and Newcastle could yet face a player at the very peak of his powers - four years after leaving the club for good.
Mitrovic has always been prolific for Serbia and when lining up in the Championship for Fulham, but what has been striking this season is how the 28-year-old has taken that form into the Premier League. After recording the highest scoring English league campaign in history last season - scoring 43 in 44 games for Fulham in the second-tier - Mitrovic has looked the part in the top-flight as well.
Mitrovic started the current campaign with a double on the opening day against Liverpool and the number nine has scored in all but two of Fulham's league games this season after also finding the back of the net against Brentford, Arsenal, Brighton and Spurs. In fact, ahead of facing Newcastle, Mitrovic is already closing in on the nine goals he scored for the Magpies in his first season in England.
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So much has changed since those days at Newcastle that none of Mitrovic's former team-mates are likely to even be in the visitors' starting line-up at Craven Cottage on Saturday. Among those who are still in touch with Mitrovic, though, is former Newcastle midfielder Mo Diame, who is in no doubt that the Serbia international will do 'everything to score' if he is fit to play. However, you soon understand why Diame predicted that Mitrovic 'probably' won't celebrate if he does get on the scoresheet.
"When you see the love Mitro had from the fans, I think he badly wanted to stay at Newcastle and enjoy every weekend with the fans because he had a very strong connection with them," Diame told ChronicleLive. "He was sad to leave, of course, but, as a football player, you always want to play so he had to go. You can see he's still scoring goals everywhere so I'm happy for him.
"Maybe some people have got doubts, but people who have been with him in the dressing room don't have doubts when training with him every day about what he can do. If there's one striker you don't want to play against, it's Mitro.
"I remember the song Newcastle fans had for him - 'Mitro's on fire, your defence is terrified' - and it's real. He scored plenty of goals in the Championship and him scoring in the Premier League is not a surprise. It's all about confidence and the manager [Marco Silva] put a lot of faith in him. He's in a nice place."
Fulham, as Diame alluded to, have built their side around Mitrovic. That was something former Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez was not prepared to do so Mitrovic ultimately left the club in 2018 to get the game time he desired.
Perhaps, it was only through leaving Newcastle that Mitrovic could truly flourish many years later - not only as a more complete striker but, also, as a calmer figure, too. In fact, you have to go back more than six years for the last time the father-of-two was sent off.
It is a far cry from the new arrival whose eagerness to impress for the club he supported as a boy occasionally boiled over. As former Newcastle head coach Steve McClaren put it shortly after Mitrovic's move from Anderlecht, 'once he crosses the white line he is a bit of a devil'.
The 'devil' now looks like a proper Premier League player, but this is not meant to come across as a gushing tribute to a cult hero who averaged just a goal every five games during his time at Newcastle. It is more an acknowledgement that Mitrovic's subsequent £22m move to Fulham, which could earn the Magpies a further £5m in add-ons, ultimately worked out for all parties. It is not often you can say that.
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