Everton midfielder Andre Gomes could be set to make a remarkable early comeback from his serious ankle injury after he resumed training on Tuesday.
The Portugal international suffered a fracture dislocation of his right ankle in his side's 1-1 draw with Tottenham in early November following a challenge from Son Heung-min.
The tackle left the 26-year-old needing to be stretchered from the field and taken straight to hospital, with fears that he could be out for six months to a full year.
Yet 86 days on, Gomes has returned to the club's USM Finch Farm training facilities as he continues to work towards a return to action.
In his absence, the Toffees have seen a change at the helm, with Marco Silva having been replaced by Carlo Ancelotti, who oversaw the former Barcelona man train with his team-mates for the first time in 2020.
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Gomes, who joined from the Blaugrana full-time following a loan spell last term, will now hope to accelerate his continued recovery with a view to earning back his place in the starting XI.
His last appearance was one of the final positive results of former boss Silva's reign, with Cenk Tosun scoring an equaliser in injury-time to deny Tottenham victory.
Silva backed his midfielder to come back better at the time, stating: "It is a serious injury and I am 100 per cent sure Andre will become stronger as a footballer player and stronger as a man.
"He is a fantastic lad and professional and all the support he needs, he will have from us.
"Our players are sad now, [but] the spirit we showed after that moment was good. It was the toughest moment for us this season."
Then-Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino noted the result was secondary at the time too, noting: “It was a really bad situation and bad luck with how he landed in the action and we can only send our best wishes and, of course, we are devastated for the situation.
“Football is not important, he is important. We can talk about football but we are feeling bad, feeling sorry and devastated for what happened because it was so difficult.”