Waking up with a fuzzy head, still wearing your kit from the night before.
It sounds like the perfect description of a famous triumph and the revelry that followed, doesn’t it?
Well, not all sore Sunday morning heads are made equally and Kevin De Bruyne’s experience in Porto last May is not one he or any of his Manchester City teammates will ever want to repeat.
“After the collision, I don't remember a lot,” De Bruyne said on Tuesday, recalling the sickening collision with Antonio Rudiger that forced him to depart City’s 1-0 Champions League final loss to Chelsea with a fractured nose and orbital bone.
“I don't remember how I got into the hospital on the night itself. I remember going back in the morning to the team hotel at 10am still with my City kit on, that's what I remember.”
Unfortunately for De Bruyne, a period of injury woe did not end there. Despite not having full feeling in his face, he rushed back to inspire Belgium on their way to the quarter-finals of Euro 2020.
He played in their 2-1 last-eight defeat to Italy with painkilling injections in his ankle - a decision the 30-year-old recently admitted he regretted.
Speaking ahead of City’s Champions League group game against Club Brugge in his homeland, De Bruyne’s recollection that his “ligaments snapped” in the summer was enough to make any City fan wince.
What’s more, the two-time reigning PFA Men’s Players’ Player of the Year revealed he has been battling with his fitness to the extent he has not trained at full capacity for the past half a year.
“I think there is still a little bit that can go up,” De Bruyne said of his form, having scored for the third time this season in the 2-0 weekend win over Burnley.
“After the three months that I had with the ankle, the last two or three months I didn't train a lot. I would say in the last six months it’s been up and down, playing not really training.”
Considering the creative midfield talent at Pep Guardiola’s disposal, using De Bruyne in this way feels pretty reckless.
The City manager frequently talks of how hard he finds it to leave players out who deserve to be playing. Sending De Bruyne back into the heat of battle without training under his belt does not tally with that.
In a congested schedule such as the one that saw City play 61 of the 62 games available to them last season, players soldiering on through bumps, bruises and niggles is inevitable.
However, De Bruyne is a Rolls Royce of a footballer, a man you expect to be in the Ballon d’Or conversation year on year - even if he thinks Robert Lewandowski should scoop the prize this time around.
His dazzling assist numbers and unique qualities mean Guardiola will always want him there for the big games, but look at the run of five Premier League matches De Bruyne missed with a hamstring injury, spanning January and February this year.
They won all five, including thumping wins over Liverpool and Tottenham, at an aggregate score of 15-1.
Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and Rodri were the go-to midfield trio, as they were when De Bruyne sat out the back-to-back 5-0 wins against Norwich and Arsenal and a superb 1-0 triumph at Leicester this term.
Phil Foden looks ready to shine in a central role, Jack Grealish can provide comparable creativity and Cole Palmer is coming up the rails with his phenomenal exploits for the EDS.
Guardiola is certainly not short of rotations options. If De Bruyne is not fit to train then he should not be risked in games. The list of injuries the brilliant Belgian has sustained is quietly and worryingly adding up.
“Rotation is important because playing four competitions and mostly going far in them, it's a tough ask sometimes,” he said on Tuesday, when discussing Raheem Sterling’s stints in and out of the starting XI of late.
“But I understand the frustration because I'm a player and you have some players who need more rhythm to get into it and maybe Raz is someone who needs more. I'm a player that needs that also.
“Sometimes it's tough to play one game yes, one game no.”
It’s also tough for a player to keep subjecting his body to injuries. It is time for De Bruyne and Guardiola to decide which hardship is more palatable and the answer seems obvious.
City are a better team when De Bruyne is there but they often do just fine without him. He is one of the best players in the world, probably the game’s finest midfielder.
If he is to remain at that level, it would be wise to selectively give him time out of the firing line when the backup options are so excellent and plentiful.
Maybe then, next May, we’ll all be celebrating at breakfast wearing the clothes we were in the night before.
