Think of an injury-hit footballer at Hull City and immediately the name of Jimmy Bullard will pop up.
Yet light has always existed at the end of the Bullard tunnel - one serious but simple injury, one lengthy but defined recovery period, one estimated but realistic date of return. And, with the cultured midfielder set to turn out for the reserves tonight, all is impressively on course.
Far more worrying is the constant stream of maladies associated with defender Anthony Gardner. He cost £2.5 million and has made (only) a handful of appearances more than his fellow crock, despite signing almost six months before. It is becoming a farce that he is constantly breaking down.
A history lesson. In the bottom division days at the start of this decade, City signed a useful player called Richie Appleby who went on to barely kick a ball for the Tigers over two seasons thanks to a succession of injuries, and eventually the club became suspicious of the player's real state of health and paid him off. Gardner is fast approaching Appleby territory now, except City are no longer in the bottom tier and, unlike Appleby, nobody could claim Gardner is feigning it.
Gardner's spell on the treatment table has become a running joke for sections of the Tiger Nation, who claim that he is forever "a week away" after an assurance from the club as to the timescale of one of Gardner's injuries last season which turned out to be horrendously wide of the mark. Injured once again, there is little noise about his recovery coming from the club, but after such a vast investment in a player who only managed six Premier League appearances last season, one surely has to question the validity of the move. Gardner was peripheral at Tottenham Hotspur for a long old time, despite winning one England cap, but a rollcall of injuries was a contributory factor, as well as an availability of a number of alternative defenders.
The fact he was at Spurs for almost a decade, and was picked by his country, makes the Gardner situation even more frustrating, as evidently he is an excellent centre back when fit to be so. He is needed more than ever after Michael Turner's departure and currently City's defence has a soft centre to it thanks to Ibrahima Sonko's unfamiliarity (and immobility), Kamil Zayatte's occasional airheadedness and the combined inexperience of Liam Cooper and Steven Mouyokolo as the only other specialists in the squad. No wonder Phil Brown opted for the long teeth of Kevin Kilbane, a largely disastrous pick when put into midfield but generally a sturdy defensive presence, when a traumatised post-Torres back four needed patching up for Wigan Athletic's visit to the KC.
Gardner may be that fabled week away right now, or maybe he will be next week. But there were brief hopes of his return at Liverpool, and when that didn't happen the club went eerily quiet on the state of their most prized defender. Let's just hope it's an oversight prompted by the joy of victory against Wigan, the return of Bullard and the international break rendering club news less vital. Something far more sinister about Gardner's health dare not speak its name.
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