Brown to assess Bullard

Midfielder may be back for Sunday's trip to Everton

Last updated: 3rd March 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Brown to assess Bullard

Bullard: Close to first-team return

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Phil Brown insists he will not rush into a decision over whether to hand Jimmy Bullard a recall for Hull City's trip to Everton on Sunday.

Bullard has missed the last three months of the Tigers' season due to a knee injury, but has been building up his fitness in recent weeks.

The midfielder played 75 minutes of a behind-closed-doors game against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday to put himself in contention for the weekend's visit to Goodison Park.

Brown expects Bullard to be making his case to start against Everton, but the Hull boss feels the 31-year-old may have a battle on his hands to get straight back into his team.

Motivation

"Jimmy is fine, no complaints, but we'll have to see how he is for the rest of the week," Brown told the Hull Daily Mail

"I'm not making any promises that he's going to start on Sunday. But if he's somewhere near, I'm sure he'll be kicking my door down to make sure he's involved.

"The motivation will be there for everyone to be involved this weekend and Jimmy will be no different.

"Jimmy is coming into a group of players who have been motivated to keep their shirts and now the looming shadow of Jimmy is the kind of problem that we all want as a manager.

"That's a decision I've still got to make. I've got an idea how I want to play this weekend so we'll piece it all together in the days building up to Everton."