when push come to shove

/wɛn ɪf pˈʊʃ kˈʌmz tə ʃˈʌv/

used when a situation reaches a critical point and one must take action in order to deal with it

Examples

1. If push comes to shove, the government will impose quotas on imports.

2. When push comes to shove, I have some extra savings I could tap into.

3. Because I think all brands want to take a stand, but when push comes to shove it's easy to kind of fall back into the middle.

4. It’s got sharp, six-centimeter-long bone spurs on its feet, so when push comes to shove, they know how to battle things out.