When Raphael Varane limped away from the World Cup final in extra-time yesterday there would have been hearts in mouths at Manchester United, yet in reality, the central defender had done brilliantly to last 113 minutes in the Lusail Stadium.
Varane was one of a few France players to come down with the bug that swept through the camp in the days between the semi-final on Wednesday and the final on Sunday, but he was ready to play and battled on against an inspired Argentina side for much of normal time.
The illness had kept Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot out of the last four clash with Morocco but Varane, who came into the tournament carrying an ankle injury, managed to play and battle on deep into extra-time. When the added time is taken into account Varane was on the pitch in the final for around 130 minutes, a herculean effort.
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It looks like he left the pitch before the end due to exhaustion, rather than any injury. Varane went down after a foot-race with Lautaro Martinez and after being replaced went down on his haunches behind the goal. It bore the hallmarks of someone who had given absolutely everything he had to the cause.
But fears of an injury in Manchester would have been instinctive. There's no doubt Varane remains one of the best centre-backs in the game, but his inability to stay fit since moving to Old Trafford for £42million has been an issue.
The problem he picked up at Chelsea on October 22 was the seventh separate absence he'd had for United in just over a year, missing 25 games in the process.
Only once has Varane started more than four games in a row for United, a run of eight matches in January and February of this year. On only two other occasions has he managed to start four successive matches.
When Erik ten Hag took over in the summer it looked and sounded like Varane would be third-choice for a while, but he was eased through pre-season with his own, bespoke training programme, which was designed to get him up to full fitness and robust enough to withstand the rigours of a Premier League season - and an unprecedented one at that.
“Varane’s stature is immense and in pre-season we took a decision to build him physically so that he had a bit of a slow start," Ten Hag said at the end of August.
“We’re happy we built him in that way and you see when the team needed him, he was there. His profile, his stature and what he has won already in the past shows he can really contribute to his team."
Since then he has missed one game with a sprained ankle and seven with the injury he picked up at Stamford Bridge. Even the most physically robust players can occasionally pick up injuries, so it's hard to say for certain whether that pre-season programme has worked or not.
But when he left the pitch against Chelsea in October Varane was in tears. He clearly thought at the time his World Cup chances had gone.
He recovered in time to make Didier Deschamps' squad, however, and after missing the opening game against Australia he then managed to start six games in 23 days, playing 521 minutes, not including added time, which in this World Cup probably adds another 40 minutes to the equation.
In the knockout stage, Varane played more than 400 minutes in four games in the space of two weeks, in what were four high-intensity matches. That suggests a player that has the physical robustness to cope with a demanding run of fixtures, the kind of sequence the Premier League will throw up in the second half of the season.
After battling through illness on Sunday and the dejection of a World Cup final defeat, Varane will need a break now, but when he returns to Carrington he might do so having proven that his fitness concerns are a thing of the past.
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