Crossword Genius

Piercing sound of monkey in poor health (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

impaling

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'piercing' is the definition.
(impaling is a kind of piercing)

'sound of monkey in poor health' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'monkey' could be 'imp' (synonyms) and 'imp' is found in the answer.
'in' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'alg' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for impaling that I've seen before include "16 [PIERCING]" , "Spitting" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times and The Sunday Times.
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