It’s the question David McGoldrick has been asked more than any other — would his presence in the latter stages of last season have enabled Town to gatecrash the play-offs?
In the end they came up short, finishing three places and four points adrift of the top six, but would it have been a different story had their 16-goal leading marksman not been sidelined for the final 15 league fixtures?
McGoldrick said: "People always ask me that. But you never know — it could have gone worse, it could have gone better. The boys dug deep, Murph stepped up to the plate well and Jonny Williams was on fire.
"Who knows what might have happened had I not got injured? I might have scored loads more or I might have gone on a drought. No one knows.”
McGoldrick would have relished the opportunity of lining up alongside Welsh international Williams, who was an instant hit with fans during his loan spell from Crystal Palace.
He added: "He’s a special player, I’ve got to admit. It would have been nice to have played with him because the boy’s going straight to the top. You could see it in training and the games. He gets kicked from pillar to post, but he gets up and he goes again.
"He’s a great footballer and it was a pleasure to see him play. Yes, it would have been nice to have played with him. But, hey, that’s football.”
There’s another question McGoldrick is growing accustomed to being asked — how likely is it that he will be targeted by clubs eager to recruit a proven goalscorer?
He said: "That’s another ‘who knows?’ isn’t it? I scored 16 goals, would I have got 20 without the injury? Yes, maybe, but maybe not.
"There have been a lot of big transfers. Yesterday we saw Forest signing Britt Assombalonga for up to £8 million. That’s a lot of money in the Championship and it shows the strength of the division.”
Newly-promoted Leicester forked out a similar sum to sign Leonardo Ulloa from Brighton and Town are likely to come up against an even more expensive striker on Saturday in Ross McCormack, the Scot having cost Fulham a reported £11 million when they snapped him up from Leeds.
McGoldrick added: "I think Ross McCormack deserved his move. Eleven million is a lot, yes, but he’ll score a lot of goals if he gets the service.”