ALEX Neil has revealed that illness was affecting several members of his Millwall squad ahead of their clash with Lincoln City.

The Lions disappointed against the Imps last weekend, mounting a second-half comeback to draw 2-2 after conceding two soft goals before half-time.

Neil was furious in his post-match press conference, describing his side’s performance as “rubbish”.

However, he has since revealed that several players were not feeling 100 per cent.

“Last week wasn’t great as far as illness throughout the squad was concerned,” Neil said. “We had guys like Lyndon Dykes and Derek [Mazou-Sacko] in particular, who were really quite poorly in the game but had to go out there and had to play. I know that because I felt that way myself.

“We’d certainly had the bout throughout the training ground, so it wasn’t particularly helpful that some of the lads didn’t feel at full health. I’m not excusing the performance on the back of that, but I’m just trying to give a little bit of context that when you are down to the bare bones, and people aren’t feeling 100 per cent, it doesn’t help because I haven’t got much to rotate it around with.

“Thursday last week, we sent Derek home, so he didn’t even train. Then he trained on Friday and played on Saturday. He put everything into the game. We, as a team, just weren’t particularly good. But I would expect us to be better this week.”

Millwall are next in action when they travel to Portsmouth on Saturday.