Dan Neil makes remarkable admission after Sunderland's comeback win and delivers dressing room verdict
Sunderland fought back from two goals down to beat Swansea City on Saturday afternoon
Dan Neil delivered his player-of-the-match performance at Swansea City despite being struck down by the bug that has swept through the Sunderland squad.
Neil has been suffering from the same illness that has impacted Luke O'Nien and Patrick Roberts over the last week, but played through the discomfort to score his first goal of the campaign. It was a vital goal, bringing Sunderland back level before Jobe Bellingham scored the winner to complete the comeback.
Sunderland's captain said it had been a successful week given the illness issues in the camp.
"There's been a bug going around the squad last week," Dan Neil said.
"Luke was in a bad way last week but fair play to him, he turned up with Chris Mepham suspended and put on an unbelievable performance in the circumstances. That then had a knock-on impact on Tuesday for him. I think it shows the character we have, everyone is just wanting to get out there for this club to try and get us promoted.
"I felt worse this morning, there was a few of us struggling with it. I thought the best thing was just to get up and get on with it. You almost feel worse just sat around so we just wanted to get out there and play. It's been a tough week with that so to take seven points from nine, the lads deserve a lot of credit."
Neil was thrilled with his goal and the result, but said the dressing room was well aware that they have to start games better after falling two goals behind.
Neil said: "They don't come around too often for me! I'm delighted to have been able to help the lads get back into the game. It just opened up for me and so I thought, 'I'm just going to let fly'. Thankfully it came off.
"I think the frustration from all the lads and we've just said it in the dressing room there, we have to start games better. We know that we start games faster but I think it shows we've got a real never-say-die attitude in this squad. I think we've dominated the second half of all these games this week. I thought we showed character but real quality as well to get back into it."