It had been a quiet couple of days in Brisbane leading into the Republic of Ireland's behind-closed-doors warm-up game against Colombia on Friday.
The squad enjoyed an open training on Wednesday, with manager Vera Pauw in relaxed mood. No fresh injuries, everything going according to plan.
But things took a turn during what was supposed to be a low-key runout.
Pauw had planned to use two completely different teams in each half against the Colombians as she looked to finetune the gameplan for Ireland's mammoth World Cup opener against Australia, while giving other squad members valuable minutes to stay sharp.
After 20 minutes, Ireland asked for the game to be abandoned. The Colombians' overly robust approach from the off had Pauw fearing the worst, and those fears were realised when a bad tackle left Denise O'Sullivan nursing a painful shin injury.
"After we finished the game I brought them in and I told them I was so proud of them."
Pauw now faces an anxious 48 hours to see how the injury settles down [it's soft tissue damage rather than a fracture], and while Ireland are hopeful O'Sullivan will face the Aussies, there's no guarantee that will be the case.
Speaking to the media at the team's hotel on Saturday, Pauw explained just how things escalated.
"At first, there was a huge challenge on Ruesha [Littlejohn]," she said.
"We ourselves as a team play within the rules of the game, a very tough-playing team. This was out of the rules of the game. It took minutes before the game started again. I was actually thinking, 'what is going on on that pitch, why do we not play?'.
"But within two minutes, there was this challenge on Denise. So it was a build-up of, this is not going right, this is going really wrong. That challenge, she was in awful pain of course, potentially a serious injury.
"I went calmly to the bench of the opponent, it was just in front of them, and I asked the coach, 'I need your help, we all want to go to the World Cup, how do we calm this down?’ And he only said, one sentence, something like, 'it’s both sides’.
"He went back and did not take responsibility. Then the team manager came. I said that we all want to go to the World Cup, can you help me calm things down. And she said, 'it’s not intentional'. But also sat down. So I got no help from them, although they were calm, the bench of Colombia was very calm.
"They did not instigate anything, I want to highlight that. Then it was developing on the pitch. Of course the players were upset... for the first time since I'm coaching [them], they feared for their bodies.
"I took them away, calmed everybody down, took them to the bench and said 'you stay here, we deal with this, of course I support you, but I'm going to discuss this with management' because calling off a game, you don't do that like that.
"Fortunately, [FAI director of football] Marc Canham had just arrived. We discussed it. He took charge of it, discussed it [over the phone] with the FAI, the CEO [Jonathan Hill], and his decision was in line with what I felt and what the players felt."
After the game, Colombian centre-half Daniela Caracas was filmed speaking to waiting fans.
"They are little girls," she said of the Irish players. "There was a tackle and they started to complain. They said they were going to see if the wanted to continue playing or not, so our coach [Nelson Abadía] said we are not going to wait for them to decide. Let them eat s***."
Pauw rejected any suggestion that Colombia walked off the pitch first. When Caracas' comments were put to her, she said: "I'm a bit shocked hearing this. Let’s say that they maybe were emotional too."
If O'Sullivan's condition doesn't improve as quickly as hoped, the manager could have a big decision to make.
Pauw described O'Sullivan as "arguably the best midfielder in the world" and she will be given every chance to recover, but the manager admitted she has to plan for the worst-case scenario too.
"Of course," she replied when asked if there was a back-up plan if O'Sullivan doesn't make the Australia game.
"We played against Zambia without Denise and we won 3-2 and Germany lost 3-2 to Zambia. We have a squad who have a knowledge of their tasks and the execution of those tasks, everyone is at the highest level of their capacity.
"We know the scenario and every single scenario has been discussed over this period, and that enhanced the harsh choices that we had to make for the players that we brought in. And this is one of them: what do we do if she is injured? So those scenarios are ready, for every single player. They were ready before this."
After a difficult night, the group remain united, Pauw adding: "Pride is actually the key word at this moment for the whole situation. The fear in their eyes made me convinced that we had to discuss this and we had to take action.
"After we finished the game I brought them in and I told them I was so proud of them.
"Katie, the captain, said the same thing. We said: 'this will not disturb us from being ready for Australia'."
