Kieran Trippier had just fractured a bone in his foot, but the England international only had one thought in his mind: how he could help his Newcastle United team-mates from the sidelines.
"We've had a conversation about that," Eddie Howe told reporters last week. "That was the first thing we discussed and that's the type of person that he is.
"He wants to make a difference and he wants to help, and he wants to lead. He'll have a big impact even if he's not playing."
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Trippier has already helped to raise standards further at the club with the way he trains and leads, and that will continue even from the treatment room.
You see, as much as Trippier's contributions on the field have been crucial in recent weeks, the right-back has also played a huge role off it, too, since lifting morale and addressing his team-mates on his very first day at the training ground.
When heads dropped after the humiliating FA Cup defeat against Cambridge United a couple of days later, it was Trippier who stood up in the dressing room once again to tell those around him to forget about the loss and just take one game at a time.
It sounds so simple but it is the calm Trippier who so often reminds his team-mates to 'keep their heads' on the field, whether they have taken the lead or fallen behind.
Ryan Fraser has hailed Trippier as a 'monster' in that respect and the 31-year-old will continue to support those around him in the coming weeks and months after suffering a fracture to the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot in the win against Aston Villa.
Newcastle do not have a definite timeframe on when Trippier will return to action and much will depend on how the mid-season signing's early rehab goes following a successful operation last week.
In the meantime, Trippier's voice will still be heard and, tellingly, the England international was the first to congratulate his team-mates on a 'hard-fought point' against West Ham on Saturday as he hailed an 'amazing performance by everyone'.
That 1-1 draw against the Hammers was the first of many games Newcastle will play without Trippier, but Howe hopes to have the defender back before the end of the season after he helped to inspire an upturn in results.
Indeed, in the four league games before Trippier's arrival, Newcastle only claimed a point and conceded 12 goals against some, admittedly, tough opposition; in the four top-flight fixtures the defender played in, Newcastle earned 10 points and conceded just two goals after previously only winning one game all season.
The individual stats also tell their own story. When it comes to crosses (10), touches (266) and passes completed in the opposition half (55), Trippier led the way in the games he played for Newcastle after also scoring two crucial free-kicks against Everton and Aston Villa. Defensively, too, only Joelinton had made more successful tackles than Trippier (12) in those matches while no one made more interceptions (10).
Trippier is just one player, of course, but you only need to look at the void the 31-year-old has left at Atletico Madrid to realise how important he is.
Stefan Savic, Trippier's former Atletico team-mate, even admitted on Tuesday that the title winner's exit had 'changed us' before adding that 'we didn't expect him to leave'.
Atletico were not necessarily in great form before Trippier joined Newcastle, on January 7, but Diego Simeone's side have only won three of their eight games since then - conceding 16 goals in the process - and Los Colchoneros have also been knocked out of both the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup.
Trippier may 'only' be a right-back, but Jadon Sancho will certainly feel a little more confident coming up against Sime Vrsaljko or Marcos Llorente when Manchester United face Atleti in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
As crazy as it may sound, there are not many more influential figures in Trippier's position at the moment.
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