Knights provide Ponga rehab update as new spine details emerge

Kalyn Ponga will be fit for Round 1 in Las Vegas despite still being in a moon boot, according to Newcastle Knights Head of Football Chris James.

Ponga suffered a Lisfranc injury in Round 17 that ruled him out for the State of Origin decider and the remainder of the NRL season.

However, James allayed fears, revealing the club is taking a cautious outlook on Ponga’s return, not willing to risk losing their star and captain early in the season.

“We need to take a conservative approach with Kalyn,” James told SEN 1170 Breakfast.

“The Lisfranc's a really serious injury. It’s the ACL of the foot and this is now his second one.

“I think previously we’ve had to rush Kalyn back from injuries because of how important he’s been to this footy team, and we’ve got a bit of time on our side now during this offseason where we can actually make sure that we go through the rehab process really slowly and get his foot ready.

“He's been doing a lot of work out of the boot and then he gets back into the boot to sort of deload it for a period of time, so we just wanted to make sure that we're really conservative, so that in round one he's ready to go.

“(The plan is) ready for Vegas… get him fit and firing for Vegas which is really exciting for our footy club.”

Ponga will almost definitely line up at fullback again in 2026, but conjecture remains around the make-up of the rest of the spine.

The Knights have brought in Eels’ half Dylan Brown on a mega 10-year deal, as well as signing Sandon Smith from the Roosters.

With Fletcher Sharpe and Phoenix Crossland both also vying for positions in the spine, one of the major pre-season questions for new coach Justin Holbrook is how the 1-6-7-9 will line up in Vegas.

“Everyone keeps asking the question, but Justin's (Holbrook) playing them in all different positions, he's trialing them on different sides of the field and everybody's really caught up with what number they're going to wear,” James said.

“I think you'll see a style of footy where they'll just play in different positions in different parts of the field.

“History will tell you injuries and different things go on throughout the year where you need 28 players to play for you in an NRL season, so we're just fortunate now that we've got depth in our halves, we've got depth in our spine, and that's a real difference here than what we've had over the last previous years.

“(Dylan Brown's) great with the ball, he'll straighten attacks, but he played behind a great New Zealand pack as well (in the Pacific Championships).

“That’s what the message at training for us has been. Our middles and our forwards, they've got a responsibility to make sure that the likes of Dyl (Brown), Sandon (Smith), Fletcher Sharpe and Kalyn are playing on the back of the pack going forward.

“That's been a real focus for us as well.

“(I’m) so happy for Dyl. He's come up here; he's had a new baby. I think we'll definitely see the best of Dylan Brown here in Newcastle.”