Nocturnal creature needs attention after an illness (7)

I believe the answer is:

antbear

'nocturnal creature' is the definition.

'attention after an illness' is the wordplay.
'attention' becomes 'ear' (ear is a kind of attention).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'illness' becomes 'tb' (TB is an example).
'an'+'tb'='antb'
'ear' after 'antb' is 'ANTBEAR'.

'needs' acts as a link.

(Another definition for antbear that I've seen is " Aardvark".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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