A four-match ban for Vinicius Junior, the Clasico against Barcelona included, looks like a nightmare for Jose Mourinho. Look closer, though, and it might be exactly what Real Madrid's stop-start season needs.
Vinicius is mired in a slump, arguably the worst of his Real Madrid career, and the timing stings given he is now rated among the team's biggest names. One goal in 10 matches across LaLiga and the Champions League tells the story.
The impact of the punishment?
Mourinho started Vinicius against Roma on Wednesday hoping the Brazilian would answer the ban on the pitch, roughly two hours after it was announced.
Whether the news rattled him mentally is impossible to say. What is certain is that the response never came, and the questions about his ability to rediscover the level of previous seasons only multiplied.
Few Real Madrid players were worse in Rome. In 59 minutes the winger failed to register a single shot on target, touched the ball just 22 times and lost it on six occasions, according to Sofascore.
Then came the error that handed Roma a goal. He tried to flick the ball with his heel, Donyell Malen pounced, and the move finished with the hosts' second.
Trailing 3-1 with an hour gone, Mourinho acted. Off came Vinicius, on came fresh blood in the front line.
Has Mourinho begun to lose faith in Vinicius?
This was not the first time Mourinho had hooked Vinicius before the final half-hour. He did the same in the derby against Atletico Madrid with his side behind.
Sandwiched between those two games came another snub. Vinicius was dropped to the bench against Villarreal, came on and got himself sent off. Taken together, the signs point to a Portuguese coach already imagining a Real Madrid without his Brazilian.
Faith may well have run out. Vinicius has been handed chance after chance and delivered nothing close to what was expected.
Yet the worst moment of his night was neither the flat display nor the mistake. It was his reaction to the substitution. He threw his arms up in disbelief and went over to argue with Mourinho, a coach who has indulged him repeatedly at the expense of players who had earned those minutes.
A turning point
Vinicius's behaviour on and off the pitch is enough to shift Mourinho's supportive stance, whatever he says in front of the cameras. His exit changed the game. Real Madrid found a late win they probably would not have managed with him still out there.
Endrick was the man who replaced him and the half-hour belonged to the substitute. He threatened from his first touches and finished with a goal and an assist, both central to the comeback.
That kind of transformation is no coincidence. Mourinho will have noticed.
How can Real Madrid benefit from Vinicius's ban?
Fate has decided the absence for him. The Spanish Football Federation's competitions committee rubber-stamped the suspension on Wednesday, a punishment Vinicius alone carries after his bizarre conduct against Villarreal, from pulling Saliba's hair to protesting the referee's decision. He misses the next four LaLiga games.
Sevilla, Barcelona, Racing Santander and Valencia will all be faced without him. Squeezed between those fixtures sit two Champions League nights against Leipzig and AEK Athens, and the Brazilian is free to play in both should Mourinho want him.
His absence hands the Portuguese a chance to look at new faces up front, maybe even rebuild the attack entirely.
Option one is Yan Diomande. The club's most expensive signing has started to nail down a place in the XI across two matches, the first of them at Vinicius's expense against Villarreal.
Endrick is the other obvious beneficiary after Rome, with coach and player both standing to gain from the surge in confidence that night brought.
More minutes could also go to Brahim Diaz, outstanding in the opener against Inter Milan, or Arda Guler, dropped on Wednesday before coming off the bench to create two goals in the comeback.
The last scenario is the boldest. Kylian Mbappe shifts to the flank into Vinicius's slot, the role he filled under Zinedine Zidane with France before his injury, and Carlos Espi takes over as centre-forward. The young Spaniard has delivered every time Mourinho has called on him.