Oscar Washington Tabarez hauled himself onto a plane for the marathon journey from South America to South Korea, where his Uruguay side are in action on Friday, before taking on Japan next Tuesday.
It is just over 30 years since Tabarez first took charge of Uruguay, in a spell that ended with second round elimination at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
Uruguay then failed to make it to three of the next four World Cups, and fell in the group phase of the one they did reach. It seemed that the great days were well and truly over for the first-ever world champions.