When Léo Scienza pulled up injured during Wednesday night's match at the Hawthorns, the whole of Southampton must have held its collective breath.
When he was withdrawn a few moments later, clutching his groin, it must have felt like the Saints' promotion hopes might just be starting to fade.
Scienza's injury looked severe and could sideline the Brazilian for 3-6 weeks. That might make it very challenging to catch Wrexham, who are currently in sixth place: the final playoff spot.
Eckert, visibly concerned about Scienza injury
Tonda Eckert was visibly concerned, talking about Scienza in the post match interview.
He said: "Let's see. We need to assess over the next few days. It was his groin that he was touching at the very moment.
We need to see how that develops over the next days. We should be able to find a way to scan it tomorrow morning, and then we'll know what's going on.
I don't know how much it makes sense to comment now. The best is to wait for tomorrow morning. Then we'll have a scan and know what's going on."
But Eckert must learn to play the hand that he has been dealt. And, it's still a strong hand.
Tom Fellows replaced Scienza and was ineffective played out of position on the left. The former West Brom player looked like a shadow of the player who tore through the middle of the Baggies midfield in the reverse fixture at St Mary's.
With the benefit of hindsight, Eckert made a very bad substitution. Samuel Edozie, who is a natural left-sided winger, would have been a much more obvious replacement.
It took the much-loved German over half an hour to work that out for himself, eventually withdrawing Kuryu Matsuki and moving Fellows over to the right.
A game-changing substitution
The impact wasn't immediate, but it was game-changing. First, Edozie drew Danny Imray into making a rash challenge, earning the West Brom right-back a booking and setting up a great chance for Southampton to get men forward.
Then, just as the match seemed to have slipped away from Southampton, Edozie, out of favour for most of the season, found Cyle Larin with an early cross.
The Canadian stretched every sinew of his neck to redirect the cross and add enough height and pace to take it out of the reach of Max O'Leary in the Baggies' goal.
Clearly, Scienza is likely to miss the vital trip to Coventry on Saturday and probably the home match against Norwich City next Wednesday as well.
If that proves to be the case, then Samuel Edozie must surely start on the left? He has shown enough glimpses of the player who helped the Saints to promotion under Russell Martin, before going out on loan to Belgian side RSC Anderlecht, to warrant a run in the side.
Some fans will argue that Edozie should never have been frozen out by Will Still and that he should have been a player who was given the opportunity to show what he could do at this level.
Of course, the player himself might have been angling for a move away from St Mary's, and a player who doesn't want to play for the club is of no use at all.
Let's hope that Edozie can find some red-hot form in Scienza's absence. Saints need the winger who came in from the cold more than ever.