Newcastle Knights have hit back at critics who questioned their decision to play star fullback Kalyn Ponga last week, despite him subsequently suffering an injury that will sideline him for three months.
A number of commentators and former players had suggested that Ponga was limping before the game and should not have been selected. However, Newcastle’s football boss, Peter Parr, strongly refuted these claims in a press conference on Wednesday.
“Anybody who said that he shouldn’t have played is ill-informed,” Parr said. “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 offense 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.”
