Mitchell Starc clutched his cut leg and - for the briefest of moments - Steve Smith and Darren Lehmann could be excused for harbouring a deep-seated sense of dread and deja vu.
Starc, sliding to field a ball in the deep, managed to cut his left leg with the spikes on his right boot. He trudged off the field for treatment but was back bowling within a couple of overs.
Friday's fielding mishap at the Gabba resulted in a minor wound but it was arguably a major scare for Australia.
Primarily because a somewhat similar incident unfolded at Sydney's Hurstville Oval last year; resulting in an ambulance trip to St George hospital, 30 stitches and a race against the clock to be fit for the first Test against South Africa.
On that occasion, during a fielding drill at training, Starc cut the same leg on a metal plate at the base of some stumps.
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The incident on day two of the Ashes opener was far less serious but it served as a timely reminder of Starc's importance to the hosts.
Starc is a different bowler to Mitchell Johnson but the closest thing Australia have to his namesake and fellow left-armer, who created so much carnage amid Australia's 5-0 thumping of England in 2013-14.
Jackson Bird and Chadd Sayers headline the calvary should anything happen to Starc, Josh Hazlewood or Pat Cummins - who are playing together in a Test for the first time.
Bird and Sayers are both fine bowlers but lack Starc's express pace. James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile are unavailable because of injuries.
The absence of an allrounder in the XI won't do wonders for the quicks' workload. Starc delivered 28 overs in England's first innings.
A handful of English players and pundits have questioned the durability of Australia's pacemen in recent weeks.
Kevin Pietersen spoke of the hosts' "fragile" attack on Friday, applauding the visiting batsmen's cautious approach in their innings that spanned 116.4 overs but featured a run-rate of 2.58.
"England is doing a real good job here. A very good job at grinding these fast bowlers down," Pietersen said on the Nine Network.
"They are putting the overs into the Australian fast bowlers.
"The risk of injury becomes quite good. If you are talking about it from an English perspective, you are saying 'do I want these guys not to play against us in Perth, in Melbourne?'.
"Absolutely not."
