Having already spent most of the game twisting and turning this way and that to torment his full back, the burst of pace from Allan Saint-Maximin to turn a lost cause into the match winner was not that of a man struggling with hamstring and back problems.
Neither was the spectacular acrobatic celebration that followed his late goal, which fired Newcastle to the brink of safety at 10-man Southampton.
‘Triple somersault and a backward flip wasn’t it? Wow, wow, wow, incredible,’ his manager Steve Bruce said, puffing out his cheeks.
Bruce was at pains to insist his winger was an injury concern for the previous weekend’s game against Burnley, when he was dropped to the bench, and, in particular, the hamstring problems he has suffered twice this season remain in the back of his mind.