Hull City's defence needs reshaping this weekend for Sunderland's visit to the KC, as the visitors are Paul McShane's parent club and he's disallowed from playing against them.
He's injured anyway, having been forced off at Liverpool with double vision, the sort of complaint which activates a mandatory rest period insisted upon by the PFA.
It means that Phil Brown needs to sort out the right back role and, experience issues aside, it surely opens the way for the great enigma figure of the first team squad, Nathan Doyle, to make his Premier League bow.
Doyle is someone the club talks about in glowing terms for his talent, attitude and potential. Yet he hardly ever plays. Brown brought him in from Derby in January 2007 as a great hope for the future and yet chooses to keep him in cotton wool constantly.
The youngster is a natural right back, although the evidence of his fistful of first team appearances suggests that he is a go-anywhere performer, capable of playing on the left of defence or anywhere in midfield.
After he joined, we didn't see him until the dead rubber of the last game of that season, a 2-1 home defeat by Plymouth Argyle. City had completed their escape from the drop a week before and so Brown could throw caution to the wind in his final-day selection. Doyle was at right back and looked a little pensive, but fine.
Brown played him in a League Cup win at Crewe early last season. Then off he went into the reserves again, to the extent that he did become literally a forgotten man among the supporters. Then, out of the blue, he was placed on the bench for the win-or-bust last home game against Crystal Palace. Brown slung him on with the game level, and he proceeded to dominate and delight, showing inventive touches and fabulous vision in a wide position, nearly scoring and generally livening up the game and his team-mates. City won 2-1 and were able to take the automatic promotion push to the final game as a result.
Of course, ultimately the play-offs were the Tigers' destiny, and Doyle's cameo against Palace was enough to re-earn him a substitute role at Watford in the first leg of the semi-finals. He came on as a midfielder in the second half and was incredibly exciting, using heel-toe control and feigns that turned opposing defenders inside out. He struck the post with one divine, curling shot - had that gone in it would have made it 3-0 to the Tigers with the home leg to come, and probably would have been enough to secure Doyle a starting role in the second leg and, maybe, Wembley.
As it was, Doyle again came on as a sub - a lot later this time - as the expectant KC bubbled and buzzed with Wembley getting closer. City were 2-1 up on the night and 4-1 on aggregate and so Brown threw him on, presumably with the basic, well-worn instruction to "go and enjoy yourself". He did just that - City had already scored a third on the night when Doyle took a ball down 18 yards from goal and hit a sturdy shot which deflected into the net, made it 6-1 on aggregate and prompted a second minor pitch invasion.
Doyle was on the bench at Wembley but didn't get on, yet his brief cameos at the end of an exhausting and exhilarating campaign made sure he was on people's radars again by the time the process of planning for the Premier League was allowed to become reality. Yet he hasn't been seen this season, aside from a night to forget at left back against Swansea City in the League Cup and a couple of seats on the bench while Anthony Gardner, Andy Dawson and Wayne Brown have been unavailable through injury or loan spells.
Doyle is clearly a fine young player, but is there something that keeps him back? The manager filled the bench at Liverpool with wide midfield players - Richard Garcia, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Peter Halmosi - but not a single natural defender, something which became more stark when McShane had to go off and Bernard Mendy's resourcefulness in midfield had to be sacrificed to fill the gap. Doyle is young but talent has always been able to override inexperience in good footballers, and he certainly fills the latter category.
Dawson is rumoured to be training well this week and if so, his return to left back will probably relieve the McShane-sized problem to its most satisfactory level, as Sam Ricketts can just shift from one flank to the other and restore Dawson to his role on the left.
If Dawson isn't fit though, what next? Will Brown really make Mendy, who forced Liverpool's left back to ring a therapist after the game, drop into defence and curtail all his brilliant attacking instincts? Or will he leave Mendy well alone and look to Doyle, his 21 year old secret weapon, and tell him that his time to be on the teamsheet for as long as he earns it, has finally come?
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