It's been an incredibly challenging 12 months or so for all of us amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our lives have been put on hold for a year while millions of people across the world have, tragically, succumbed in the aftermath of a devastating outbreak which first came to our attention in the UK in early 2020.
Following its initial cancellation, football returned behind closed doors and has subsequently provided people with some form of respite in the face of the ongoing pandemic.
Of course, it's not the same without supporters - both at Old Trafford and beyond - but there is now seemingly light at the end of what has been a long, dark tunnel.
As attentions turn to the Europa League this Thursday night, two familiar faces stand between Manchester United's hopes and chances of booking a place at the Gdansk showpiece next month.
They are, of course, Roma duo Chris Smalling and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Neither player will go down in history as a United great - but how they would have both loved to have witnessed one last roar from the Old Trafford crowd on such a special European night.
The return of that iconic atmosphere will come in time, though Smalling and Mkhitaryan can at least call upon past memories to paint the picture for their Roma teammates.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, football has not been without its high-profile controversies. Far from it.
Intended to provide hope at a time when other dreams had to be sidelined, the emergence of alarming European Super League (ESL) breakaway proposals - which United were at the forefront of - had the opposite effect as fans started to fear for the future of the beautiful game as we know it.
Thankfully, those plans have since been extinguished, but the damage has, for all intents and purposes, been done.
Supporters continue to question how they are viewed by the billion-pound (or dollar) wielding figures that shape our clubs in the modern game, but at a time when the football community united in resistance to that ESL reform, they did so to support former United defender Smalling, too.
The England player and his young family were subject to a horrific robbery at their home in the Italian capital earlier this month, with Marcus Rashford among those reaching out to his former teammate - a touching gesture which was then replicated by supporters of rival clubs on social media.
Amid that and the Covid-19 pandemic, it's been a testing spell on and off the field for Smalling.
Indeed, a number of injury setbacks have restricted him to just 18 outings for Roma all-told since he moved to the Serie A club on a permanent basis for £13.5million in October.
Having enjoyed such a successful loan stint there last season, that will no doubt have come with frustration.
Sidelined with two separate knee injuries, a recent thigh issue and even a bout of food poisoning, the 31-year-old has been unavailable for Paulo Fonseca in 23 games across Serie A and the Europa League on the back of his move.
He did, though, return to play an hour of their most recent fixture against Cagliari on Sunday afternoon.
Smalling has been given a chance by Fonseca of starting against a club where he spent the best part of a decade, winning two Premier League titles, two domestic cup competitions and the Europa League itself in 2017, under his former United manager Jose Mourinho.
How highly Smalling is regarded at Old Trafford in the Premier League era remains somewhat irrelevant.
For his ten years of service - and having had to endure a hugely difficult time for a number of reasons - he deserves one last opportunity to play at the the club's iconic stadium, even if there are no supporters there to issue him with a warm reception that his efforts for the United cause warrant.
