Kalyn Ponga will likely miss the entire State of Origin series after scans confirmed a Lisfranc injury that will sideline the Newcastle superstar for a minimum of 12 weeks.
Ponga underwent scans on Monday morning on the foot injury he suffered in Newcastle’s loss to the Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon. He has been diagnosed with a Lisfranc rupture, which occurs when the metatarsal bones in the foot are damaged.
The Knights feared surgery would rule him out for the rest of the season, however the club medical staff hope the No.1 will be back in three months.
He will see a specialist over the next 24 hours before going under the knife.
The injury comes a week after Ponga sustained a hip-pointer injury in the loss to the Sydney Roosters, with Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien confirming his latest setback was an isolated incident.
“Nothing to do with the hip-pointer [injury from last week], it’s in the foot,” O’Brien said after the game.
“A ligament in the foot, as far as I know … it’s pretty rare, so not great signs for us. I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is, but it’s a ligament that goes down under the foot.
“That muscle is pretty rare apparently. I’ve only had like 30 seconds just to give you guys some sort of information, but similar to like a Lisfranc [foot joint] … relatable to that, but not exactly. That’s about as much as I know.”
The Knights have started the season with just two wins from seven games. They travel to Brisbane to take on the high-flying Dolphins this weekend, before returning home to face the Warriors.
“We’re playing like a frustrated footy team,” O’Brien said.
“You’re looking at some of the teams – and the Bulldogs are a good example, Dragons are a good example – of not having great seasons last year, and they’re loving footy at the moment, and loving being in the grind and going after stuff,” O’Brien said.
“We’re not enjoying it at the moment … We’ve got to get back to finding our love of the game.”
