Thursday, November 2nd, and Demien arrived at Carrington carrying two completely different weeks in his pocket.
His phone still had congratulations trickling in from Monday's ceremony — seventeenth in the Ballon d'Or, second in the Kopa, messages arriving hours apart from people in different time zones who'd only just seen the news.
The football coverage had already moved past all of it, straight onto United's elimination from the cup.
He didn't spend the morning reading either side of it.
He locked his car, walked past the reception desk with a nod to the two staff members behind it, and went straight through to the medical wing without detouring toward the coffee machine the way he usually did.
His only concern was whether the staff would clear him for normal Fulham work after the derby, Paris, and his substitute minutes against Newcastle.
