Newcastle hooker Jayden Brailey's NRL season is officially over.
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The 24-year-old suffered an ACL injury in his second game for the Knights in round two and underwent a surgical repair in March, which left him facing up to nine months on the sidelines.
It was originally believed he had been left out of the Knights' 32-man squad, but the club will begin training on Wednesday with an active list of 31 players, with Brailey able to return as an "inactive" player.
Knights' general manager of football Danny Buderus told AAP Brailey is now able to resume full rehabilitation with the club and will be around training with his teammates.
"You have to put 50 in your compound, that's 32 players and 18 staff and because he's outside of the 12-week return to play, Jayden's season's over, which is a huge shame," he told Fox Sports.
"Those two games he played you could see the difference he had for the team so that's going to be a hole to fill."
Back-rower Mitch Barnett is also recovering from neck surgery but, as he is closer to a return to play, the Knights were able to include him in the squad as an active player.
"Jayden's got his rehabilitation program in place along with Mitch Barnett," Buderus said.
"We'll get Mitch back pretty soon. It's a shame for Jayden and I know how much he loves being here at Newcastle and he's going to be a Knight for a long time to come."
Versatile Connor Watson and Chris Randall, who is yet to make his NRL debut, are expected to be considered for the dummy-half job by coach Adam O'Brien.
Knights skipper Mitchell Pearce said the team may need to adapt to a new playing style without Brailey.
"Brails is obviously a huge loss, he was our best player in the first two games," Pearce said on Tuesday.
"For me as a halfback I found a really good combination with Jayden and it was building nicely so firstly it's horrible news for him.
"He's training his backside off to recover as quick as he can but footy is bigger than a one-man game and we'd like to think we've got some systems implemented there."
