Sam Allardyce will give West Ham's goal-a-game striker Diafra Sakho every chance to be fit for Saturday's Premier League trip to Stoke.
The summer arrival from Metz has hit the ground running since arriving at Upton Park and has scored on his first six league starts, as well as a goal in the Capital One Cup defeat to Sheffield United.
That means the 24-year-old, who has found the back of the net against Liverpool, Manchester United and, most recently, Manchester City, is on the verge of breaking the record for the best start to a Premier League career.
But a shoulder injury suffered in last Saturday's memorable win over champions City could put his run on ice as Allardyce weighs up the risks of sending his in-form forward into action at the Britannia Stadium this weekend.
"(It is) touch and go, we will wait until Friday and see what he is like,'' Allardyce replied when asked about Sakho's chances of featuring.
"We will make a decision from there, he is still in a bit of pain, while there is no dislocation or fracture it is all about the arm movement. The pain is obviously a lot less than when he did it but we don't know if it will be sufficiently recovered enough to take the risk.
"There is no injection for this scenario, it is all about the movement and if the pain is bearable enough for him - it depends on his pain threshold.
"At the moment it is about 50-50 but there are still 48 hours to go so there is a lot of recovery time between now and 3 o'clock on Saturday so we will wait and see, we might even wait until Saturday morning.''
With Mauro Zarate also likely to be missing again, if Sakho was to miss out it would leave Allardyce with Enner Valencia and Carlton Cole as his main attacking options.
Andy Carroll is stepping up his training regime but there is no chance of him being fast-tracked to make up for the potential absence of Sakho.
"At the moment the two things are that we are playing very well and getting results and that doesn't force us into looking at Andy earlier than we should do,'' Allardyce said of Carroll's potential return.
"That is great for us and it is great for Andy. It is about game time and training with the lads and seeing how quickly he improves his sharpness and his match fitness.
"Andy has to go through what for him is the final part of a pre-season after recovery, and ease himself slowly into games.''