THE Newcastle Knights are set to kick off 2022 without their main two ball-handlers from last season after Jayden Brailey suffered a suspected torn Achilles at training on Saturday.
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Brailey is now facing surgery and the prospect of five to eight months on the sidelines.
The absence of the classy dummy-half follows the departure of veteran playmaker Mitchell Pearce to Catalans Dragons at the end of last season.
That means Newcastle will start the season with a new-look hooker-halfback combination, and it is also unclear who will be the first-choice five-eighth.
The only guranteed starter in Newcastle's spine will be fullback Kalyn Ponga.
Knights coach Adam O'Brien subscribes to a "next man up" mentality and he now has the rest of the pre-season to determine who that man will be.
Home-grown Chris Randall is the only other specialist hooker in Newcastle's squad, but utilities Kurt Mann and Phoenix Crossland have been used as stopgap rakes in recent times.
O'Brien told the Newcastle Herald last week he was confident in his squad's depth "across the board", should injuries strike.
"Over the last two years we've had to, through necessity, give jerseys to guys like Chris Randall, Phoenix, Dom Young and Brayden Musgrove, and that's only going to help our depth this season," O'Brien said.
"Those guys haven't experienced a lot of first grade, but they've certainly experiened some. And I feel quite comfortable in that regard."
Randall, who debuted early in 2020 when Brailey suffered a season-ending knee injury, now has 12 NRL games under his belt.
The 26-year-old Lakes United junior is a defensive workhorse, making an NRL-record 71 tackles on his top-grade debut.
Mann was signed by former Knights coach Nathan Brown specifically to play hooker, but has since been used mainly as a utility.
Crossland, better known as a half or five-eighth, played some dummy-half off the bench in 2020.
The Knights also have vacant spots in their squad and could look to recruit a replacement.
Brailey will be hoping to emulate Darius Boyd, who ruptured an Achilles while training with Brisbane in December, 2014, but was back playing by round nine the next season.
