DANNY Brough will undergo an operation later this week that will rule him out for the Bulls for at least three months.

It has been confirmed that the veteran half back tore his bicep in the win over Newcastle and he now faces surgery.

John Kear said: “We’ll be able to get a more accurate time frame once they’ve opened it up and seen the severity of the damage and repaired it. But you’re looking at a minimum of three months.

“It’s rugby league and proper physical stuff so you get people getting injured. Unfortunately for us it’s one of our main organisers.

“We’ve just got to get on with it as best we can.”

The Bulls have started the hunt for a replacement but do not expect to get anything sorted for the weekend.

“We are looking to bring in an experienced half back but there isn’t that many available,” added Kear.

“I would imagine in all realism we’ll probably have someone for the Widnes game but we certainly won’t have anyone for Featherstone."

Brough has been an ever-present since signing and the 38-year-old playmaker's long-term absence will mean a rethink in Kear's plans.

"We were going with Brough and (Jordan) Lilley this season, that’s where we’d invested a lot of our salary cap, with a young half backing up which is Billy Jowett and Matty Race.

"But obviously we’ve had a bit of bad luck and one of the two gun players has got injured. We’re now trying to replace them as best we can.

"People might think you just ring someone up, ask them if they want to play for Bradford and they jump about madly. But it's not as easy as that.

"There's a lot of toing and froing between clubs, players and agents and it's a time-consuming business."