Stuart Pearce is convinced Ben Thatcher will not be affected by the 15-match suspended sentence hanging over him for the next two years.
Thatcher will serve the third game of an eight-match ban on Sunday when Manchester City visit Blackburn.
The punishment is a legacy of Thatcher's disgraceful challenge on Portsmouth's Pedro Mendes at Eastlands last month but came with the additional FA warning that if the former Welsh international transgresses in a similar manner again, he will automatically miss 15 games, effectively a third of a season.
For a player whose game is based on aggression, Thatcher will find himself walking a disciplinary tightrope when he is eventually cleared for his return to action in late October.
However, Pearce is not anticipating any problems from the 30-year-old full-back.
"I doubt it will affect him," said the former England skipper.
"Ben has a physical element to his game, which makes him the player he is and I don't think he can play in any other manner.
"He has been shaken up by the ferocity of his behaviour and I do detect remorse within him.
"What is important now is that he accepts his punishment, comes back perfectly fine and plays within the laws, which he does anyway 99.9% of the time."
Pearce admitted he is not entirely sure what would constitute a 'similar offence' or who would make the call.
It is not the only disciplinary 'grey area' he has found himself dealing with in recent days after Ousmane Dabo's three-match ban was upheld by the FA following his dismissal at Reading on Sunday.
Even Royals midfielder Steve Sidwell, whose face Dabo's elbow connected with when the pair challenged for an aerial ball at the Madejski Stadium, claimed the Frenchman's red card was harsh.
And, while Pearce has no grounds for taking the matter further, he feels there is an element of inconsistency about some of the punishments being dished out.
"Ousmane gets sent off and banned for three matches for something I deemed to be reasonably innocuous, yet Kevin Davies gets a broken cheekbone and Herman Hreidarsson only gets the same punishment."
There are many who feel that after getting major decisions wrong already this term, including Dermot Gallagher letting Thatcher off with only a booking for the Mendes assault, officials are now being over-zealous to ensure major incidents are properly dealt with.
"What you can do as a referee is look at the players' reaction," said Pearce.
"That will tell you whether there was a serious injury and whether you should stop the game or whether there has been a particularly bad tackle.
"Normally, the players' reaction is 99 per cent spot on. Sometimes you have to go with that."
At least Pearce has the experience of Dietmar Hamann to call on as City look to end a disastrous run of 11 defeats in 12 away games and also score their first goal of the new campaign in general play.
Joey Barton's match-winning penalty against Arsenal last month remains the Blues' only strike and with last season's top scorer Andy Cole now at Portsmouth and Darius Vassell sidelined with a knee injury, hopes of an immediate upturn in fortune are not high.
However, Pearce remains relaxed about the situation, insisting City will eventually come good.
"We do need to be more clinical in the final third than we were against Reading," he said.
"But the more often the team plays together, the more chances we will create and the more we will take."