While Mamadou Sakho took selfies hugging koala bears from his hotel balcony on Thursday evening in Australia, it is conceivable that just down the hallway, his defensive partner Martin Skrtel was alone, staring out across the Brisbane skyline with relief washing over him like a cool wave.
The defender may have known that Liverpool had finally met Aston Villa's demands for Christian Benteke, thus surely bringing to an end a transfer story that has run almost as long as Raheem Sterling's protracted exit from Anfield.
The good news for Skrtel? He would not have to mark Benteke in a competitive match any time soon.
But then the bad news, the cold realisation: for the foreseeable future, he'll probably have to confront his bane most days in training at Melwood.
When Benteke faced Liverpool in December 2012 he represented a Tirpitz - a battleship pummeling the opposition defence and overwhelming every living species on its course.
Benteke's last blockade was Skrtel, who, despite possessing a shaven head and numerous sinister-looking tattoos, was made to look like a determined but novice boxer up against the Mike Tyson of strikers, who repeatedly put him on the canvas.
The 24-year-old scored twice that night, with his second goal of the game making it 3-0 to Villa after just 51 minutes. The game eventually finished 3-1 and the unforgiving nature his performance made it feel like the visiting team were always going to prevail.
In April, more or less the same thing happened: Liverpool played Villa, although this was in an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. Skrtel versus Benteke. The result: Liverpool one, Aston Villa two – Benteke sliding in Villa's equaliser on an occasion Simon Mignolet, Liverpool’s goalkeeper, left the field with a bruised tongue after the striker roughed him up while a corner-kick was being taken.
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