Hull City boss Steve Bruce has blamed this season's relegation problems of the club on the injury woes his squad has experienced.

The Tigers are sitting third from bottom in the Premier League with just one game left in the campaign and Bruce feels that position is due to the fact that key players have been missing for large chunks of the season.

In order to survive relegation, Hull will need to beat Manchester United next weekend at the KC Stadium and hope Newcastle United fail to win against West Ham United.

"Seven or eight of the team against Tottenham are the team that got me here two and a half years ago," Bruce said.

"It's not time for excuses but big players have been missing for too long.

"You can see what (Nikica) Jelavic brings to the team, we've been without him for six months, we've been without (Mo) Diame for six months, (Michael) Dawson for four and a half months.

"Too often we've got big players out who we've paid big money for and there is the problem.

"Over a period of the season we've not been able to cope with the loss of the big players."