Aiden McGeady is playing through the pain of a fractured foot, such is his determination to help Sunderland reach the Championship.
The Republic of Ireland winger suffered a fractured bone in his foot in the Black Cats' win at Accrington Stanley at the beginning of April and sat out two games before returning as a substitute in the defeat against Coventry City, and then starting the Easter fixtures against Doncaster Rovers and Peterborough United.
The 33-year-old is barely training through the week and is reliant on painkilling injections to get him though matches.
But McGeady is such an influential figure for the Black Cats - a fact underlined this week as Sunderland supporters named him their player of the season, and by his Aiden McGeady included in PFA's League One Team of the Year - that it was worth taking that risk as the race for automatic promotion reaches its climax.
"It's probably not the right thing to say because if you put it out in the open that you have an injury, teams might try and capitalise on it and take advantage," said McGeady, who is Sunderland's 11-goal top scorer in the league following the January departure of Josh Maja.
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"Against Accrington I fractured a bone in my foot, so either my season was over or I tried to manage to play with the aid of anaesthetic injections to try to ease the pain.
"So from day to day I have been doing nothing, not training, and then playing.
"That's what has happened in the last two games.
"If I am being totally honest, in parts of those games I don't feel myself because there is that thing in the back of my head where I still have this pain.
"But the manager wants to take the risk and I do as well because I didn't want my season to finish because I was enjoying playing and I am enjoying my football and the team was on a good run.
"I didn't want my season to finish six weeks early.
"So myself, the management, and the physios, took the approach that I could play and not make the injury any worse by getting injections before the games.
"I think the manager sees me as, not a luxury player, but someone who can change things.
Aiden McGeady included in PFA's League One Team of the Year
"That has been the thread through my whole career and the manager is OK with me lacking in other parts of my game because of the injury.
"If I am able to produce something that helps us get to closer to our goal this season, he will accept that."
McGeady is hoping that his efforts will not ultimately prove to have been in vain, with Sunderland's Easter Monday draw at Peterborough United leaving the Black Cats as outsiders to claim an automatic promotion place with Luton Town, Barnsley, and Portsmouth, all ahead of them.
That game at London Road was Sunderland's 18th draw of the season - the highest total in the division - and if they fail to finish in the top two and have to take their chances in the play-offs instead, it will be those dropped points that will have cost them.
McGeady said: "You couldn't pinpoint any individual mistake, or point the finger at anyone in particular.
"It's been a long, hard, season and there is a lot of pressure and expectancy on us because of the size of the club and the players that we have, there is a feeling that we should have run away with the title.
"And in hindsight, if in some of those draws we had held on to wins, and if we had won 1-0 away at Oxford or Scunthorpe rather than drawn, we would have run away with it.
"But it's small margins.
"But we are there and we are still in with a chance.
"Monday was a bit of a hammer blow, conceding so late on at Peterborough.
"We will just approach these last three games and try and win them and hope for a Barnsley slip-up."
Sunderland have a chance to at least put some pressure on this weekend when Pompey visit the Stadium of Light.
McGeady said: "I pray that there are more twists to come.
"Ultimately, if we don't go up it is our own fault.
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"There have been vital times in the season where we have not won games and not capitalised on the advantages we have had.
"Portsmouth went to Burton and won; we played Burton at home and drew.
"We lost to Coventry at home; Portsmouth beat them.
"It's small margins like that that could be season-defining.
"But we owe Portsmouth something anyway after losing down there in December, and then losing in the EFL Trophy final at Wembley.
"We just have to try and win our three remaining games and see what happens – just hope that Barnsley drop points."
McGeady was pleased to receive his fans' award at the supporters' branch liaison committee meeting at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night, but admits he would be happy to trade it in for automatic promotion.
He said: "Individual accolades are great to look back on, but obviously it is a team sport and I would swap this for us getting promoted – that's the main thing.
"When you reflect back on the change and the circle that the club has been in, and probably myself over the past season, because I remember last season Sheasy [John O'Shea] won it and it was quite a dull, grim, time for the club.
"Now, after the result at Peterborough, people are unhappy and disappointed but it shows how far we have come and the expectancy level on us now compared to last season."
