Paddy McCarthy has been forced to deal with a career-threatening injury, deferred wages and watching his club go from promotion candidates to relegation battlers, but he can't let any of that affect him in today's must-win game against Derby County.
The Crystal Palace defender knows that failure to pick up the three points from Pride Park could not only send the Eagles tumbling towards League One, but possibly into extinction as administrators continue in their efforts to save the debt-ridden club.
Palace are just one point outside the relegation zone with three games to play. As McCarthy bluntly puts it 'the survival of this club is our hands and we can't mess it up'.
The 26-year-old has only made 17 league appearances this season and has been afforded little time to ease back into action following a shoulder injury that needed three operations to fix.
Instead, he was thrown straight in once declared fit enough to play again. He wouldn't have it any other way though after spending so long on the sidelines watching the club fall apart.
'It has been tough and very frustrating to watch what has happened. We were flying and in with a shout for the play-offs, then we fell into administration and suddenly we're battling to stay alive,' McCarthy told Sportsmail.
'It is not easy watching as your team struggles and not being able to do anything about it. I've been itching to get back and now that I am I'll be doing all that I can to make sure we stay up.
'All that the players can do is win our three remaining games. The future of the club will be decided at the end of the season, but we know that the club could go if we don't do our jobs right.
'We have to beat Derby to give us a chance. It is in our own hands now, but we have the right kind of characters in our dressing-room to achieve it.'
Knowing that a club's survival hinges on your performance is quite a heavy burden for any player to carry, but McCarthy reckons the Palace squad are up to the task.
He views his team-mates as 'lads I would take to war' and that is exactly how they need to view today's clash with Derby. They will be hoping their impressive away record - six wins and 10 draws - will count for something, but it is up to them to deliver.
A month ago the Republic of Ireland B international couldn't even cut his own food or make a cup of tea due to the severity of his shoulder injury. Now he is right in the middle of a relegation scrap.
But he is thankful to be back playing as his career could have ended without even having a chance of keeping Palace in the Championship.
'It is great to be back playing. It felt like such a long time that I was out with the shoulder, which was very frustrating and there were a few times when I wasn't sure if I would ever come back,' he said.
'I first had an operation on my left shoulder in January 2008. It was done by a surgeon who was recommended as the best in Britain, but it went all wrong and in hindsight it was a massive mistake doing it.
'Then there was a fault in the second operation, but the third operation helped to clear it up. Once I got back playing there was a physological barrier I had to get over, but once I went into that first tackle it was all alright.
'There isn't much time to think about what went wrong or whose to blame for things. It is all about getting stuck in now and helping this club stay alive.'
With someone like McCarthy to call on, Palace have every chance of defying expectations by avoiding the drop and the threat of extinction.