THE Bulls could face three months without Danny Brough after their seventh win on the bounce came at a potentially heavy cost.

Playmaker Brough tore a bicep late on in the 31-12 triumph over Newcastle and John Kear fears the veteran could be facing a lengthy lay-off.

“We’ll have to wait and see but it looks serious,” admitted the Bulls coach. “It looks like he’s torn the bicep off the bone and if that’s the case it’s a 12 to 14-week job.

“It isn’t good, especially after you’ve seen the way we’ve evolved and developed as a team.

“Obviously he’ll be going for a specialist’s appointment as early as we can. If he does need surgery, hopefully we’ll get that done this week.”

News of a possible long-term absence for Brough took the shine off a win that the Bulls had to fight for. Having gone in 6-6 at the break, they scored four second-half tries to eventually see off the dogged Thunder.

“I’m really pleased with how we turned it around,” added Kear. “We were very scratchy indeed in the first half, making silly errors, giving penalties away and consequently we couldn’t get in their half.

“It was like attack v defence and I asked the players if they were good enough to turn it round – and they did. The completion rate went from 50 odd per cent to 85 and the scoreboard reflected that.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Danny Brough lands a drop goal shortly before he was forced off with injuryDanny Brough lands a drop goal shortly before he was forced off with injury

“Newcastle are in our division and are a good rugby league team. We were aware of that.

“They came here with a good gameplan and executed it very well in the first half. But fortunately with the quality of our guys, we were bigger and stronger eventually and came through the other side.”

Sam Hallas successfully came through his first game since his broken jaw. Anthony Walker also got off the mark for the Bulls with his first try in competitive action for four years.

Kear said: “Today was a special day for him. He’s had it tough and had to work really hard to get back here.

“I know he can play like that which is the reason I stuck with him and we’ve tried to get his conditioning level up for this competition.

“I thought they were outstanding. They came on and had an impact and that’s all you can ask.

“I’m really pleased with what we got from the guys who were sat in the dug-out.”