After the torment of more than 12 months on the sidelines, Niall Huggins received a standing ovation from his Sunderland teammates in the away dressing room after the win at Birmingham City.

And the defender says it's the "unreal" support of those teammates that helped him through his injury hell over the course of the last year and more.

Huggins joined Sunderland last summer but only played four games before he was ruled out with a stress fracture in his back. That was the start of a string of injury setbacks that sidelined the 21-year-old for 14 months before he made his return at St Andrew's.

Throughout that nightmare period, Huggins says the support of his teammates helped him to stay positive.

“The lads have been unreal," he told Sunderland's club website.

“It was the first time I’ve come to a new club in my career and the last thing you want is to come and then get injured straight away. All the way through my year out, the lads have been unreal supporting me.

“I've always had lads to talk to, to spur me on and keep my head up. But there is nothing like being back in training with them full-time again. To play and get a win with them was the best feeling.”

What was the most difficult for Huggins during his time out of action was the uncertainty.

He said: “It’s been really tough.

"It’s not been straight forward because sometimes with an injury, you know what your road to recovery looks like whereas I’ve had so many different injuries where I’ve got to the point where I’ve started running outside for a few weeks and then I would get another setback.

"It maybe happened like three or four times I was out on the grass so I could taste playing football again. For this time, we tried a different way of recovering, more of just going straight into football and taking it slower and slower. This way seems to have worked really well.”

And when Huggins was finally ready to return, he says being part of the action again felt as good as he knew it would.

"It was unbelievable," said the former Leeds United man.

"I think the last ten minutes I was just dying to hear that final whistle. For the first game back, it was a tough game.

"It was a well-fought game by the lads. We all got stuck in especially after we conceded the first goal, they were piling the pressure on. I thought we dealt with it well and came out with an unreal result going into the break.

"The first half was a bit of a shock intensity wise because I’ve been playing with the younger lads for a while now but second half I got into it a bit more. I thought I did the job well to be fair."