George Boateng feels Hull could have avoided relegation from the Premier League had influential winger Stephen Hunt not suffered a season-ending injury. Hunt, voted Hull's player of the season, contributed six goals to the Tigers' cause following his arrival from Reading last summer but his absence was keenly felt during the run-in after suffering a foot injury in February.

"When you look at the man who won the player of the season award, Stephen Hunt, he scored six goals and when he wasn't playing towards the end, the team wasn't the same," Boateng told Hull's official website.

"If he hadn't got injured, another six goals would maybe have got us the points we needed to be safe. However those are the things you can't control."