Cardiff City captain Sean Morrison was put through the ringer by Uche Ikpeazu last season.
During the first game, away at Wycombe back in December, the mountainous striker blazed through the back of the City skipper and forced his early exit, which ultimately led to the Chairboys coming out on top in a 2-1 win.
The injury ruled him out for three weeks, but Ikpeazu was not done with the tormenting just yet.
Morrison endured an injury lay-off after the win over Swansea City owing to a calf strain, however upon his return, having missed five matches and seeing the Bluebirds' play-off hopes fade drastically, he came up against the formidable Ikpeazu once again.
And the forward once again imposed himself on City's own rock-solid centre-half and inflicted yet more damage.
Just seven minutes into that match in April, Ikpeazu floored Morrison and he had to receive treatment for several minutes on the pitch. He soldiered on for the rest of the match, but it was his last of the season, with City's captain missing the final two matches.
Although Wycombe were ultimately relegated, it seemed only a matter of time before Ikpeazu was back in the second tier.
Indeed, WalesOnline revealed that Cardiff were in fact interested in signing the 26-year-old forward, but Neil Warnock up at Middlesbrough moved swiftly to sign him from under rivals' noses.
While of course Warnock would have done his scouting due diligence, it was also the manner in which Ikpeazu dealt with Cardiff captain Morrison that helped sway the mind of the former Bluebirds boss.
According to Warnock, Morrison even admitted during a recent telephone exchange that he was gutted Cardiff didn't sign Ikpeazu this summer.
Warnock revealed on BBC Tees: “We’ve signed Uche. I can’t tell you his other name. I just call him big man on the training ground and he knows who I mean.
“I really do like him. Yes, he’s gangly and maybe a little bit uneasy on the eye, but he’s so determined and such a great lad. He’s so passionate.
“He had good offers from elsewhere as well I believe, but he said he’d followed my career at Cardiff and others and he knew Middlesbrough, so he always wanted to come here.
“I talk to a lot of people all over our league - people like Sean Morrison, for example.
“I asked him about strikers when I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and Uche had put him on the deck and done his knee the first game against him, then he did his shoulder or his elbow second game.
“He didn’t know I was going to sign him, but he was saying ‘flaming heck, I wish we’d got him. He put me on the deck three times’.
“I thought, ‘he’ll do for me’.”
Should Cardiff have signed Uche Ikpeazu? Let us know in the comments section below.
Cardiff have of course already signed a striker, with James Collins having arrived following the expiration of his contract at Luton Town.
Collins is one of three signings already made by the Bluebirds, with midfielder Ryan Wintle having joined from Crewe and centre back Mark McGuiness arriving from Arsenal.
