Hull City Football Club News

• Nickname:The Tigers
• Founded:1904
• Manager:Nick Barmby

• Ground:Kingston Communications Stadium
• Capacity:25,404

Bullard ruled out for season

19 Feb 2009 - 12:05:03

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Hull City's worst fears have come to fruition after it was confirmed that Jimmy Bullard will play no more football this season.

The Tigers spent a club record transfer fee of £5million to bring the Fulham midfielder to the KC Stadium last month only for the 30-year-old to pick up an injury on his debut for the club.

Bullard, who spent 18 months on the sidelines with a similar injury during his time at Craven Cottage, flew to America earlier this week to undergo arthroscopic surgery on a cartilage tear in his right knee.

The operation has now taken place, with a statement on City's official website saying: "Jimmy underwent a procedure on Wednesday night in America to repair a torn cartilage.

"Whilst performing the arthroscopy, the surgeon noticed fresh damage to his anterior cruciate ligament.

"In the best interests of both the player and Hull City, it was decided to undertake a reconstruction of the damaged ligament which means that Jimmy will be unavailable for the remainder of this season."

Tigers boss Phil Brown had said earlier in the week that he feared the worst for the former Wigan Athletic star, telling the Hull Daily Mail: "As far as I'm concerned, I'll take full responsibility for Jimmy being at this club.

"We've got to make big decisions but I don't think taking a chance on Jimmy Bullard was a big decision.

"Jimmy came to us with an injury that happened 18 months previously and having recovered from it by playing 50 games.

"The character of the man and the quality of the player was worth the weight of money that we paid for him.

"Consequently, it has been a very unfortunate situation where, in the first 35 minutes of playing for us, he finds himself with a jarred knee."