Hull City captain Ian Ashbee is confident Jimmy Bullard will bounce back from knee surgery.

Ashbee said: "Any injuries are difficult to take, whether one month, two months, three months...there are always dark days among them.

"But he can dig deep and bring things out like he did last time he was injured.

"Of course he is up for the fight, he is a professional. He is not going to roll over.

"It is a big blow, it's disappointing but he has got people around him."

Ashbee, 32, can empathise with Bullard having had his own career threatened by a serious knee injury and a bone disease in 2005.

He added: "It is maybe in a month when things have died down a little that we'll need to get round him, when he's in the gym doing the laborious sessions they put on for him.

"Psychologically, that is the toughest battle he faces but he has been there before.

"It is not something that he has not done and cannot handle. I'm sure he'll handle it again."