{"id":593126,"date":"2026-09-07T18:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593126\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T18:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:22:12","slug":"knights-receive-stunning-injury-boost-ahead-of-nrl-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593126\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights receive stunning injury boost ahead of NRL finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle Knights<\/a> could welcome back rookie second rower Francis\u00a0Manuleleua to return for the club’s elimination final in a massive boost to their premiership credentials.<\/p>\n

The rising talent went down with a nasty elbow dislocation in Round 26 against the Warriors, where he fell awkwardly and suffered the injury.<\/p>\n

Scans revealed there were no fractures present from the incident, skyrocketing his chances of returning for the club’s finals hunt.<\/p>\n

CODE Sports is reporting Manuleleua is firming for a rapid return this weekend against South Sydney, bringing lethal attacking flair to the Knights’ edge and marking an incredible comeback from what looked like a long-term injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going good,\u201d Manuleleua said to CODE Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club’s trying to give me the best chance to play this Friday, obviously got to tick a few boxes this week to try to get through contact.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah it feels good, all my movement’s back, just got to get the swelling down a bit and I think I’ll be sweet for this Friday. I’m a real good chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Coverage<\/p>\n

Manuleleua made his NRL<\/a> debut in Round 3 this year and immediately impressed as an 80-minute backrower with damaging power.<\/p>\n

Since Dylan Lucas’ long-term ankle injury in Round 21, Manuleleua has owned the left back row jersey, making his presence felt with his running game.<\/p>\n

He has notched six try assists, eight-line breaks and 26 tackle breaks in his 11 NRL<\/a> appearances to date, making plenty of fans in the Hunter excited at what the future holds for the New Zealand-born talent.<\/p>\n

The Knights have been dealt a cruel injury fate during 2026, but have made miles of progress from where the club sat last year in last place under Adam O’Brien<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They will kick off the 2026 finals series when they travel to Sydney to face the Rabbitohs on Friday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle Knights could welcome back rookie second rower Francis\u00a0Manuleleua to return for the club’s elimination final in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-593126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}