Hull City’s talismanic midfielder Jimmy Bullard has, for the second time this season, scored a spectacular goal for the Tigers’ reserve side as he fights back from injury.

Bullard, who damaged his knee in Hull’s 3-0 defeat at Aston Villa in December, is desperately required as the side’s recent resurgence in form came to a ghastly halt with a 3-0 defeat at fellow relegation-strugglers West Ham.

And he came through an hour of a 3-0 win for Hull’s reserves over Wigan’s second-string at North Ferriby - scoring a spectacular volley - which puts him in contention for a comeback against Everton on March 7^th.

 

It is hoped that he will continue his rehabilitation against League of Ireland side Galway United today (February 26^th). However, the club are wary of rushing their £5m record signing back too quickly.

Manager Phil Brown had hoped that Bullard would be available for selection at the start of the month. And he would certainly have been needed as the Tigers crashed at Upton Park.

They finished the West Ham game with nine men after the dismissal of striker Craig Fagan for two bookable offences and a late knee injury to centre-back Anthony Gardner.

Gardner underwent a scan on his injury on Thursday after initial fears that he may have broken his leg when falling awkwardly in an innocent challenge with Hammers’ defender Matthew Upson.

It was later reported that the former Tottenham man, who missed the last two months of last season with a spinal injury, might be out for up to two more months with ligament damage.

However, manager Phil Brown said that he would not be able to properly assess the injury until the results of the scan were known.

Meanwhile, fellow defender Kamil Zayette caused controversy with claims that he could have moved to either Tottenham or West Ham during the January transfer window and by expressing his hope to “land a move to Manchester United or Chelsea” in the summer.

The 24 year-old Guinea international was quoted in the Daily Star tabloid newspaper as saying: “I almost left Hull (in January)…but they wanted too much money for me.”

He added that a summer move to either of the two main EPL title contenders would “make all Guineans proud of me.”

In another tabloid controversy, the Daily Mirror apologised for a story they ran on Monday February 22^nd claiming that Brown had blocked his players from attending a fund-raising event for the victims of the recent Haiti earthquake.

The story suggested that only second-generation Haitian, striker Jozy Altidore, would be allowed to attend and that he’d had to “beg” for permission.

The Mirror removed the story from its website and replaced it with the following statement: “We are happy to make it clear that Mr Brown did not instruct his players to stay away and is a big supporter of charity fund-raising.

“Hull players were not prevented from attending and it was always the intention that Jozy Altidore would represent the club.”