Jimmy Bullard has travelled to the USA where he will have surgery on a knee injury later this week.

Knee specialist Dr Richard Steadman will perform the operation, news of which will have come as a blow to Hull City who were hopeful that the midfielder wouldn’t have to go under the knife.

A statement on the club web site read:

Jimmy will be having an arthroscopy to deal with a tear in his cartilage.

The best man to perform this is the surgeon who dealt with his injury while he was playing for Fulham.

Bullard joined Hull from Fulham for £5 million but has played for his new club just once.