While still unable to represent his new club until January, the good news is that Adrien Silva has been cleared to start training with the rest of the Leicester City squad.
The Portuguese midfielder joined the Foxes from Sporting Lisbon on transfer deadline day but, despite being afforded a two-hour extension, the buying club still managed to overshoot the deadline for his registration by 14 seconds.
That left Silva in a state of limbo, unable to play for his new club or return from whence he came. Leicester then submitted an appeal to FIFA to allow the £22million transfer to go through on compassionate grounds, only to see it rebuffed by the governing body.
So, while Leicester prepare to take their case to the Court of Aribtration for Sport, FIFA have relaxed their stance ever so slightly by allowing Silva to at least train with his new side.
Whether or not it’s a deliberate thumb-of-the-nose is debatable, but it certainly looks like Leicester have plied their latest recruit with a rather pithy squad number…
Ho, ho, ho. What they did there, we see it.