Cartridge Unable to Work

Over the past couple of months I've been on and off about trying to remedy a problematic game, mega man legacy collection, simply due to not being really that committed or serious about the problem. I've had different issues on the system with other cartridges where they were unable to be read, but they were fixed. This particular game however gives me the error message to hold the power button for 10 seconds, each and every time I try to boot it, no matter how many times I take it out, put it back in, restart the system, or if I clean the cartridge. I'm thinking it's the case I keep it in, as the cartridges in the back are pressed up against the fuzzy inner lining, and that the readable part of the cartridge might be getting dirty or scratched due to that. Even several attempts at troubleshooting online have really lead nowhere, because the usual results for searching are the "cartridge not reading" issue, which this isn't. I'm not against the possibility that this may just be a cartridge that's too damaged to be read, because I haven't touched it much since getting it years ago, but I would like to know what's happening either way