'I feel utterly horrendous': Unlikely Portsmouth hero longs for his bed after remarkable comeback by Bristol City man

The Bristol City loanee was thrown back into first-team action after just three full training sessions following the calf injury he sustained seven weeks earlier.

It was a case of needs must for John Mousinho, who was eager to start with the influential 26-year-old in the centre of defence against Derby.

Atkinson, who was already suffering from illness, responded with two headed finishes and an own goal during a remarkable comeback - including a 91st-minute leveller after he’d been thrown up front due to cramp.

And that last-gasp intervention secured a 2-2 draw to increase the Blues’ lead to four points above the Championship relegation zone.

Atkinson told The News: ‘Honestly, I feel utterly horrendous, but I felt the gravity of the situation we were in, I really wanted to help the team.

‘Obviously it’s not the ideal way coming back from an injury, you probably want to build it up a bit slowly, but this is a very important part of the season and I understand why it needed to happen.

‘There were other factors as well. I have an horrendous chest infection, I woke up this morning with a stomach bug as well, so that wasn’t great. So I felt horrendous going into the game. Fortunately the Pompey crowd carried me through - and I’m still standing.

‘Maybe if we were 4-0 up, which is kind of what I was hoping for, I would have come off. That didn’t quite come to fruition, so I had to play the full game. And what a game it was.

‘I haven’t felt my calf since a week after I did it, it has felt absolutely fine until today. Then both of my calves kept cramping up. It’s just cramp, so I am fine.

‘Every time I jumped, both my calves would cramp up and I didn’t really want to be a hindrance to the team at the back, so I went over to the gaffer and said I needed to play up front - and luckily I did because I scored again.

‘I also hindered the team a bit at the other end - I think I made up for it.’

In a crazy five- minute spell, Jerry Yates opened the scoring on 70 minutes, before Atkinson equalised within a minute after he headed home Josh Murphy’s corner.

Then, on 75 minutes, the defender diverted a cross past Nicolas Schmid for the first own goal of his professional football career.

But he popped up during six minutes of time added-on to finish Schmid’s long kick and secure a precious point.

Atkinson added: ‘The own goal was probably the result of the rustiness, it’s completely my fault as well.

‘Nico had shouted for it nice and early and I thought I had a better chance of clearing it myself, I wanted to take responsibility. Those things happen as a defender, it’s about how to bounce back from it.

‘I felt quite tired quite early in the game and I’ve not really had that much time on the training pitch to get the feet right, but, having said that, it was probably just once I got it wrong.’