Jimmy Bullard’s knee specialist in America, Dr Richard Steadman, recommended that Bullard uses the treadmill, the bike and swimming exercises to help him recover from his knee injury. Bullard uses fishing to help himself to cope psychologically. “I get so focused, it’s like an addiction,” he said. “I’ll soon be better at fishing than I am at football.”

Bullard has sent ripples through the angling community with his competitive spirit and has won two £800 prizes.

He acknowledges that he is making waves. “Maybe a few people get the hump, this footballer taking the money,” he told this month’s edition of FourFourTwo magazine. However, he is not apologetic. “Sod ’em. I’m here to win,” he said.

Some of the more established anglers were not, therefore, too upset when the Fulham player fell in the water on several occasions but they were astonished to see Bullard drop his mobile phone in the lake. “It stayed there for five hours because I carried on fishing, then I scooped it out with the landing net and it still worked. Good phone, that one.”