Hull chairman denies Bullard a bad investment after seven-month lay off

Jimmy Bullard may not be fit to return for Hull Cityuntil September as he tries to recover from knee surgery.Bullard has been in America to see specialist Richard Steadman and is not fit to fly home for another fortnight.It was believed before the surgery that Bullard just had a torn cartilage - but an arthroscopy revealed anterior cruciate ligament damage. Floored: Bullard lies in agony on his Hull debutHull chairman Paul Duffen admitted: 'For this injury, people normally quote a ball-park figure of six months. It can be four months or seven months.'Duffen denied that the Bullard deal has been a bad investment. 'This is a player that we did well to buy for £5million. We bought him for four and a half years. I liken it to buying a house. If it floods, it's still worth the same amount when you dry it up. The value is not eroded.'Hull's record signing Jimmy Bullard has been ruled out for the rest of the season And he does not think that Fulham pulled the wool over Hull's eyes by selling them an injured player. Obviously, it's the same knee and the last injury that he had was horrendous. But Jimmy underwent a thorough medical and there is no suggestion that he came with this injury.'The Hull chairman said the news will not hurt their attempts to stay in the Premier League.'You can't miss what you've never had,' said Duffen. 'He was never part of the team.  It's a great disappointment but we need to win three more Premier League games and can do that.'Bullard became Hull's record signing in January, moving from Fulham for £5million. He is on a £50,000-a-week deal but has played just 37 minutes, coming on as a substitute at West Ham, when he sustained his new injury by jarring his knee.There had been suggestions that Hull knew the injury would keep him out  in the long-term before Bullard went for his operation.But Duffen said: 'We just thought it would be a routine flushing out of the knee after a meniscus tear.' Blow for Bullard as Hull midfielder is ruled out for the seasonTop of the stops: Van der Sar is the Premier keeper, but where do Reina, Cech, Almunia, James et al come in our clean sheet table?HULL CITY FC NEWS FROM ACROSS THE NET  

Source: Daily_Mail