Boss Paul Jewell has hit out at claims that midfielder Jimmy Bullard’s illness which kept him out of Monday's game against Nottingham Forest wasn’t genuine. The 33-year-old will face his old club Hull City today if he is over the flu bug.

Jewell said: “Jimmy Bullard was [due to be] playing on Monday. He rang me at 10 o’clock from home sounding in a really bad way.

“He said he felt very ill, he’d been out for a walk and that there was no way he could play in the game. He won’t have been the first player to ring in sick.”

The Blues boss says the club’s medical staff have liaised with the midfielder’s GP regarding his illness: “He’s been to see his doctor, who has spoken to our doctor.”

Jewell admits that the Londoner, who joined the club over the summer after last season’s hugely successful loan spell, has suffered a dip in form but says there’s no excuse for the rumourmongering: “When we signed Jimmy Bullard, the people on the terraces were shouting that it was the best thing we’ve ever done.

“When we re-signed Jimmy Bullard and when we were winning games everyone was saying what a fantastic signing Jimmy Bullard was.

“Jimmy Bullard has lost his form but he’s not the only one, so don’t let this be a Jimmy Bullard campaign and don’t cast aspersions on Jimmy Bullard’s character by saying he’s not really ill, you’d be completely wrong.”

Jewell admits that the form of a number of his senior players needs to improve: “I think the club deserves more and I think the players deserve more from each other and from themselves.

“It was two games ago that we turned a corner, according to some people. We are where we are because we’re not good enough.

“We’re not unlucky, you can say that all day long, but we haven’t been good enough so far this season and that’s why we find ourselves in this situation.

“Ipswich have no divine right to be anywhere in the league other than where we are at the moment.”

Ultimately, he says as the manager that’s down to him: “It’s not about being let down [by players], we haven’t performed to our ability, there’s no doubt about that. I take the blame, I’m the manager, so I’ll take the rap, that’s the way football is.

“I’ll take it, I’m a big boy, I don’t like it. Some of it’s right, some of it’s unfair, but if I got upset things that someone said about me that I didn’t like, I’d never close my eyes at night.”

Photo: Action Images

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