A constant fixture in the Everton defence since his 2009 arrival from Portsmouth, Sylvain Distin has found football hard to come by this season; the veteran defender has fallen from first choice to fourth in a matter of months.
Amid rumours of the player bumping heads with manager Roberto Martinez -- rumours Martinez has been quick to rubbish -- Distin has not featured in the league since the 3-2 home defeat to Crystal Palace in September.
Distin has appeared in just six matches in all competitions, and in those games, Everton have conceded 16 goals in five matches, with a solitary clean sheet in Lille a rare bright spot in an otherwise lackluster start.
This early-season individual horror show reached its nadir in the 3-0 League Cup defeat at Swansea, with an unsightly error marking the start of this first-team exile. For the defender, who was named the Players' Player of the Season in 2011-12, this recent period is sure to be the low point of his Everton career.
Not even on the bench for the weekend 0-0 draw against Swansea, which forced Gareth Barry into action as a defensive stopgap after an injury to Antolin Alcaraz, the immediate future of Distin, who is out of contract this summer, looked bleak. Yet that could change moving forward.
As well as Barry did seamlessly transitioning from midfield to defence, it is not a viable solution; the midfielder is too important in the middle of the park.
Martinez explained his lack of central defensive cover after the match, Distin's age being the primary reason, "He is not someone I want to use on the bench at the age of 36. If he is not going to start then he is not going to be on the bench."
That is perhaps understandable, with Distin turning 37 next month, but the absence of a recognized centre-back among the seven substitutes merely appeared naive, especially with John Stones already sidelined. It meant Everton lost the ability and influence of Barry in midfield.
Muhamed Besic, who subbed in for Alcaraz, filled the midfield vacancy created by Barry's move to defence. Still, with experience in defence at former club Ferencvaros of the Hungarian league, the Bosnian may have been a better bet in the back line, allowing Barry to continue in his preferred position.
After a shaky start to the season saw the Distin-Phil Jagielka partnership crumble, with the pair conceding 13 goals in their first four matches together, the duo offered a reminder of better days with their impressive defending in the 0-0 draw in Lille two weeks ago.
Set to rekindle their defensive pairing in upcoming matches, starting on Thursday against Lille, this is Distin's chance to prove the doubters wrong and remind supporters of the quality evident throughout much of his five-year spell on Merseyside.
Although with Stones and Alcaraz out for the near future, it will be interesting to see whether Distin features in both of this week's matches. Two games in four days will test his ageing limbs, but it is a case of the club needing to fill a void, in all honesty. The brief action of possible alternative Tyias Browning's fledgling career has been at right-back. To throw him in the heart of the defence would be an unwise, unnecessary gamble.
And Everton need their back line at its best on Thursday -- on current availability, that still includes Distin -- as they attempt to grab three points and remain top of Group H. Victory is a must if the Blues are to avoid a potentially nervy end in their bid to advance beyond the group stage.
The Blues also require their attacking players to fire. After the clinical finishing exhibition against Wolfsburg in the opening week, where the home team fired four past their German counterparts, the team hasn't able to match that in their away fixtures, fading in the Krasnodar and Lille fixtures.
Though obviously unable to help in the final third, Distin can at least influence the upward trajectory of a defence rediscovering their resilience in recent weeks, rebuilding his own season in the process.