Not only was the Southern Steel centre bed-ridden earlier this week, but she is preparing to play her third netball game in six days tonight.
You would not have known that yesterday.
She was as lively as ever as she put on a player-of-the-match display in the 69-58 win over the Northern Mystics in Invercargill on Super Sunday.
The good news for Steel fans is she has been eating plenty and began to feel back to normal on Saturday.
Even better news is that she feels "very fresh" as the Steel looks to hand the Pulse its first loss of the season.
That is in stark contrast to earlier this week, when she battled through half a game against the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic on Wednesday.
"It definitely wasn't very nice, but I managed to get a half out on court," she said of the bug.
"I had the whole day on Wednesday and hadn't spewed or anything, so that was good."
While it had not been great preparation for the season's busiest stretch, she said she had to "go with the flow".
As she looked to tonight, it was not a dissimilar situation to last year's third game against the Pulse.
After two big losses, the Steel responded with a win in Invercargill and went through to beat the Pulse in the final.
Saunders felt the crowd had a part to play in that.
"I think the crowd's a great factor to have behind us.
"I think they're going to be the difference tomorrow night.
"Everyone will be a little bit tired, but it will be easier playing in front of a big home crowd."
Meanwhile the Steel has called in Southern Blast and Physed defender Laura Overton - who was the ball girl for its last home game.
