The Newcastle Knights will have to do things the hard way on the run into the NRL finals, with State of Origin representative Daniel Saifiti sustaining a knee injury against the Cronulla Sharks.
While the club are yet to officially comment on the severity of the impact, it's thought Saifiti sustained a knee injury.
Coach Adam O'Brien spoke to the injury at the post match press conference, with Saifiti originally able to retake his position in the game for a few moments before being brought from the field.
"Potential medial (cruciate ligament)," O'Brien said.
"The positive is he got back up in the line.
"The negative is he didn't stay in the line for too long. But he's in there getting assessed now so we'll see where he's at."
Saifiti is expected to be out for a couple of weeks if the injury is confirmed, meaning he will be racing the clock to play again before finals.
Daniel Saifiti suffered a left knee injury, video shows contact from tackler to outside of lowe leg causing medial collapse. Brings concern for MCL injury, traumatic nature + inability to play on points to at least moderate sprain. Would be facing minimum 2 weeks out if so pic.twitter.com/wPRA5l2Uej
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) August 15, 2021
The Knights are currently in a mid-table scrap to make the finals, but yesterday's victory over the Sharks, combined with losses for the Canberra Raiders (to the Melbourne Storm) and Gold Coast Titans (to the South Sydney Rabbitohs) this weekend mean the Knights are two points clear and on pole position to finish in the top eight given their easy run home.
O'Brien's side will play the Canterbury Bulldogs this week, before facing the Gold Coast Titans in a crunch Round 24 match, then will finish their season with the Brisbane Broncos.
