Three months ago, Kyle McFadzean was facing a rare spell out of the Burton Albion team and a battle to get back into the Brewers defence.
At Bramall Lane tomorrow night, though, the uncompromising centre-back is likely to lead Albion out against the team he supported as a child and with whom he made his senior debut back in 2005.
In the face of several key injuries at the back, McFadzean has stepped to the fore for Burton, producing consistently impressive performances during a run of six games in which they have shipped only four goals.
That follows a period around the turn of the year when the 31-year-old struggled for game time. He was left out of the squad entirely for the defeat at Derby County on December 2.
But Nigel Clough believes McFadzean's recent form has been the perfect response to those setbacks earlier in the campaign.
And the Brewers boss wants more of the same from the former MK Dons man against the Blades, although he will urge him not to get carried away by the context of the clash.
"What we don't want him to do is think he has to do anything different than what he's done in recent games," said Clough.
"Sometimes players think, 'oh, it's this team or that team, I've got to do a little bit more, try a little bit harder'.
"We just want him to keep defending as he has done recently.
"It's nothing fancy, he doesn't have to do anything clever, he just has to keep doing the basics well as he has done.
"Coming out with the ball a couple of times he has been dispossessed, we want to cut that out of the game, something we talked about earlier on in the season.
"When we left him out a couple of months ago, we thought he deserved to be left out.
"I think, if you want an example of how a player takes that, he knuckled down, and since he's been back in the team, he's probably been our most consistent player.
"A good example to the others of when you do get left out, how to react."
McFadzean has dovetailed well with centre-back partner Tom Naylor, another who has shown how to seize his chance after sporadic involvement during the early parts of the season.
Even with recent injuries to Ben Turner, John Brayford and Tom Flanagan, the success of the McFadzean-Naylor pairing has kept first-team skipper Jake Buxton out of the side.
Buxton's last start came in the 3-1 loss to Reading in January.
"The partnership that (McFadzean) and Tom Naylor have formed is a good foundation back there," said Clough.
"You think against Brentford how well they played (in a 2-0 loss), Kyle is unlucky with the own goal.
"Somebody told me that the first shot on target in that game was Brentford's second goal, which was 80 minutes in.
"So to reduce a team like Brentford, who are usually getting 20 shots off in a game, to no shot on target until the 80th minute is huge credit to them.
"They are a good partnership, and the only person who is suffering for that is Jake Buxton.
"He's very unlucky not to be in the team in some ways, he is our captain and we'd like him out there.
"If he played a different position, he would probably be in at the moment, even full-back.
"But with those two doing so well, I think as a pair and individually, they've been outstanding in recent weeks."
