{"id":15441,"date":"2020-12-29T23:31:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T00:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=15441"},"modified":"2020-12-30T08:57:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T08:57:06","slug":"knights-want-pearce-gone-over-sexting-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=15441","title":{"rendered":"Knights want Pearce gone over sexting scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some senior figures in the Newcastle<\/a> club no longer want star halfback Mitchell Pearce<\/a> at the club following his sexting scandal with a female employee.<\/p>\n

Officials are concerned at a split that has developed in the playing group in the wake of the scandal – that saw Pearce's fiancee call off their wedding this week – going public.<\/p>\n

The staffer is a close friend of several players, most notably respected back-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon, and his relationship with Pearce is now described as 'icy'.<\/p>\n

Officials are worried that the situation in the playing group will be untenable as a result of the scandal and are considering releasing Pearce to a rival NRL club.<\/p>\n

A swap with another club for a playmaker is another option.<\/p>\n

Pearce is already expected to be stripped of the Newcastle captaincy but some within the club believe harsher action is necessary to retain harmony among the playing group.<\/p>\n

The club's players and staff are on Christmas\/New Year break until January 4 but officials are assessing their options.<\/p>\n

One possibility is to bring Cowboy Jake Clifford – who has signed with the Knights for 2022 – to the club a year early.<\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/p>\n

Another is Gareth Widdop, who is contracted to English club Warrington but is desperate to come back to Australia to be closer to his children.<\/p>\n

But all this hinges on whether another club would be willing to pick up Pearce, who has a year to run on his deal.<\/p>\n

At 31, he remains one of the most talented halfbacks in the competition and a fresh start may be the best thing for both him and the Knights.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some senior figures in the Newcastle club no longer want star halfback Mitchell Pearce at the club following his sexting scandal with a female employee. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15443,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15441\/revisions\/15443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}