After missing the start of the season, Wednesday's match against Paris St Germain in the Champions League group stage could be the best possible moment for Eden Hazard to reveal how important he is to his new club Real Madrid.
However, the Belgian international's unfortunate start to Real, when he played in the middle of the second half of Saturday's match against Levante in La Liga, could push French coach Zinedine Zidane to hesitate to push him into tomorrow's game, which is a very difficult test for the team away at home. Start the journey to find a new title in the mother continental competition.
Hazard is the king's most expensive and expensive transfer in the summer, and of course hopes that Hazard will help him regain the 13-times European title, most recently in 2018.
But the captain's participation in the Levante match was not convincing at the start of his appearance with the team.
A senior journalist in Spain's football world, citing sources within the Meringue, said Hazard was suffering from pre-season weight gain.
The Chelsea midfielder also suffered a muscle injury that postponed his first appearance with the Meringue to Levante last Saturday.
Hazard played in the last half hour of the Levante match when Real were 3-1 up front, but Hazard did not give the team anything to mention, and Levante also narrowed the gap in his presence to end the game with a 3-2 win.
After the Levante match, Thibaut Courtois, Chelsea's former Chelsea teammate, apart from their Belgian team-mates, said: "I was a little annoyed because he lost the ball twice."
No one in Madrid doubts Hazard's high potential or will be successful for a long time with Real.
But Jorge Valdano, a former Real Madrid player and coach, commented on Saturday's game: "What a compact body (lazard) and a shirt outside his pants," which the social media pioneers considered a sign of weight gain.
Club president Florentino Perez will certainly want to see Hazard play a part in Sunday's game against St Germain, who have recovered Neymar after recovering from injury, but Brazilian star and fellow young striker Clyne Mbappe and dangerous Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani will be out of action tomorrow.