Malabo - Manchester City are sweating on the availability of Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony for Saturday’s title clash at Chelsea - but whether the two Ivorians can play may come down to the drawing of lots.
Ivory Coast face Cameroon on Wednesday night knowing a win will guarantee them a place in the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, and keep the City stars in Equatorial Guinea for at least another week.
If they lose, Toure and Bony will head home on Thursday, and could be ready to face Premier League leaders Chelsea.
However, things get more complicated if they draw.
Despite a star-studded line-up, the Elephants have drawn both of their first two games 1-1. And, remarkably, both the other games in the group, which also features Cameroon, Mali and Guinea, have also ended with the same scoreline.
That means going into the final round of fixtures, all four teams are level on points, head-to-head, goal difference and goals scored. Should that remain the same after tonight’s games, lots would be drawn to determine which two sides go through to the quarter-finals, and which two are eliminated.
Even if one game ends with a positive result, were the other to be a draw there would still need to be lot drawing to decide who goes through, and who goes out, of the teams that finished level.
And, just to complicate matters further, two wins by the same score would see a toss of the coin to see who finishes first and second in the group. City boss Manuel Pellegrini will hope Cameroon can show more cutting edge than in their first two games, freeing his stars to return to Manchester without relying on luck.
Daily Mail