Hmmm shack rattle n roll

Hi folks I have spent a fortune on my old mav 2.7 particularly trying to stop a noisy front end, the other day I jacked up the drivers side front and the wheel was lose as heck, anyway I changed the upper ball joint but whilst doing that I noticed there was not circlip on the drive shaft splin, Im thinking the excesive play caused by the worn ball joint has misplaced the circlip meaning the drive shaft seems to have an adversity to staying inside the hub, anyone come across this before????
All the best
Andy