Kalyn Ponga's chances of taking the field for the 2024 State of Origin series may have been crushed, but Queensland legend Darren Lockyer believes the Newcastle star will still hold an important role in the Maroons camp.
Ponga was ruled out of the series on Monday after suffering a Lisfranc injury during the Knights clash with the Bulldogs.
The injured fullback will spend the next 12 weeks on the sidelines, recovering from both a hip pointer injury and foot surgery.
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Speaking on Wide World of Sports' QLDER, Lockyer said he believes Ponga can be a valuable mentor for Broncos star Reece Walsh and will become a key asset to the team.
"We talked about how a week can be a long time in rugby league and only last week did we speak about Reece and Kalyn being in the Queensland team together," the Maroons great said.
"For Billy [Slater], there has been quite a few injuries and I guess he will have his fingers crossed that there's not too many more.
"I think at some point you have to rely on more than the 17 that you pick. You have to build a nucleus of players and that's not just your 17, it's a group.
"I think Kalyn's been there and Billy regards him really highly. I think if Kalyn is willing to come into the camp and give advice to someone like Reece, I think that could only be a benefit."
Ponga has not been a member of the Maroons squad since his man-of-the-match performance in the final game of the 2022 series. He was expected to don the No.1 jersey for the 2024 season, taking over the spot from the incumbent star Walsh.
Lockyer, who is a Queensland Origin selector, recalled his own experiences playing with a hip pointer injury and said that the pain is not something that can be ignored or resolved using a needle.
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"Hip pointers are really painful. I remember playing with a couple of them and they are just the sort of injury that you can't needle it to get the pain away. It just affects the way you run," he said.
"In hindsight, maybe it was the wrong thing (for Newcastle) to play Ponga but it's done now.
"He's got a foot injury and he needs to get into his recovery."
Lockyer said he does not believe the Knights season is over with the loss of Ponga, noting the side pulled off the unthinkable in the eyes of the NRL community last season.
"I remember last year everyone wrote the Knights off and they went on a 10-game winning streak," Lockyer said.
"Sometimes when you lose a big player like that it can actually go the other way for you and really motivate the rest of the team to compensate for his loss."
Newcastle boss Peter Parr slammed those criticising the club's decision to play an injured Ponga against the Bulldogs, revealing the fullback underwent all training sessions without pain management prior to the game.
"Anybody who said that he shouldn't have played is ill-informed," Parr told media on Wednesday.
"Kalyn trained all of last week, without any pain management. I actually witnessed him kick for goal for 30 minutes on Friday.
"He was never flagged as missing the game, he did everything required.
"I take some real offence that the club, and our medical staff in particular, would play a player that wasn't fit to play – he was fit to play.
"And any assertion that his foot injury, on his right foot, had anything to do with his left hip is equally ill-informed.
"I feel for our medical staff and our coach with the assertion that we played him when he wasn't fit to play… and that somehow there is some correlation between a contact injury to his right foot, to some pain in his left hip. We need to clear that up.
"Some of the people that have come out with some commentary around Kalyn – ex-footballers – also played with painful injuries at times as well. I don't know how suddenly they've become medical experts."
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