Phil Brown is encouraged by the progress being made by Jimmy Bullard.

Hull City paid £5million for the Fulham midfielder in January, but he managed just 37 minutes of his debut before suffering a second serious knee injury of his career.

Although Bullard is unlikely to be available for the Tigers when the new season begins in August, manager Brown believes the player is ahead of schedule.

"From what I've seen he's definitely ahead of schedule,” he said. "I wouldn't like to put a timescale on the injury but everything is going well."