The crumb of comfort of Diogo Dalot's apparent hamstring injury on Saturday is he has more than two weeks to regain fitness for Manchester United's Premier League resumption against Nottingham Forest.
Such is Dalot's determination, he might have his sights set on Burnley in the League Cup on Wednesday week. The only one of United's 21 matches he has not started in this season was through suspension.
Had Portugal progressed to the quarter-finals of the World Cup then Dalot would have officially been out of the cup tie. Semi-finalists are guaranteed to play at least two more matches, with the third-place play-off on Saturday.
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Eight United players have returned to Doha airport since the quarter-finals. Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane are absolutely unavailable for the visit of Vincent Kompany's side.
The old warhorse Casemiro was magnanimous in defeat, Antony shed tears, Harry Maguire was "gutted", Marcus Rashford bit his shirt and Bruno Fernandes buried his head in his shirt.
For Erik ten Hag and his staff, the mental challenge is greater than the physical one with those who reached the latter stages. Lifting dejected players up is one aspect, another is bringing them down.
Imagine if Argentina lift the World Cup for the first time since demigod Diego Maradona did in 1986, with all the emotion around what would be Lionel Messi's pièce de résistance. Martinez would doubtless want to return to Buenos Aires and savour the sea of blue and white. Pitting him against Brennan Johnson in Baltic Manchester weather the day after Boxing Day is a comedown.
Ten Hag had jokingly messaged "see you on Monday" to Martinez prior to the fractious quarter-final between Argentina and the Netherlands. Tyrell Malacia, unused in the entire tournament, strode onto the pitch to quarrel with the antagonistic Leandro Paredes.
The suggestion from staff at United is those who were ejected from Qatar at the weekend will have this week off and come under consideration for a bench role against Burnley on December 21. United could name a nine-man bench of David de Gea, Dalot, Luke Shaw, Maguire, Casemiro, Fred, Fernandes, Antony and Rashford. That is a bench worth £423.41million of talent.
Facundo Pellistri is back in Manchester and Christian Eriksen is due to return to Carrington this week nearly a fortnight on from Denmark's limp exit at the group stage. Malacia has not played since United beat Fulham on November 13, so has to come into contention for involvement from the start against Burnley.
Eriksen is expected to line up next week, almost certainly next to Scott McTominay. Alejandro Garnacho and Anthonys Martial and Elanga are probable shoo-ins, Donny van de Beek maybe not after his withdrawal from the starting XI against Real Betis on Saturday.
Tom Heaton underlined his qualities to be reinstated as No.2 and is overdue a full United debut, which could be against the club he earned England honours with. Two of Malacia, Brandon Williams and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are likely to start at full-back and Victor Lindelof's place is assured.
Maguire, guilty of reserving his finest form for England, may be required from the start as a distraught Teden Mengi was carried off in the first-half in Seville on Saturday. With one Premier League start in four months, Maguire has an opening to start against Forest.
Burnley, at the summit of the Championship, strolled past Queens Park Rangers 3-0 at Loftus Road on Sunday and have lost only two of their 24 games all season. United are certain to stray close to six years without silverware and the League Cup represents the earliest date to end that drought.
Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea are all out and one of Manchester City and Liverpool will be after the fourth round.
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