After being one of four players dumped from the top grade for last weekend's Manly game with his future at the club in doubt, the Newcastle Herald has learned Levi will be handed a reprieve against the Eels, capping off a big week for the Kiwi hooker.

He became a dad for the first time last Friday when he and his fiance Kimberley Goodearl celebrated the birth of daughter Nylah and now gets his chance to play in arguably the Knights most important game of the season.

After being one of Newcastle's best performers in the 30-6 loss to the Eagles, Connor Watson will make way for Levi at hooker and start the Eels game on the bench.

Knights insiders claim coach Nathan Brown wants to utilitise Watson's blistering running game out of dummy half as more of a shock tactic rather than play him for the full 80 minutes.

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"Browny sort of felt that Connor worked so hard against Manly for so long that some opportunities were missed through a bit of fatigue," one source said.

"Danny's also going to be on a real high with the birth of his little girl so we'd expect him to grab his chance with both hands as well. His form had been down a bit but obviously when the team was performing really well mid-season, he was at the fore-front of that."

It's understood Gavet's hamstring strain is only minor but given the importance of the game, the Knights are taking no chances. It means Brown will only have one specialist prop on the bench in Jacob Saifiti alongside Watson and backrowers Aidan Guerra and Sione Mata'utia. But either Guerra or starting backrower Mitch Barnett can fill in as a middle forward with Watson giving the team more cover if there is an injury in the halves.

The Eels go into the game in sixth spot with a four point buffer over seventh-place Cronulla and are coming off a 12-4 win over St George Illawarra at Kogarah, their fifth win in their past six matches.

They have also won six of their seven games at Bankwest Stadium since it was opened and seem to find added energy at home.

By contrast, the Knights slumped to their fifth straight loss when they were thrashed 30-6 by Manly last weekend and are walking a finals tightrop having slipped to 11th on the ladder, two points out of the top eight. While a defeat won't necessarily kill their chances mathematically of featuring in the big end-of-season games, key players Watson and skipper Mitchell Pearce both conceded this week the game will make or break their season.

"It's hard to see us coming back from it if we can't break our run of losses," Pearce said. "There is everything to play for and we simply have to find a way to win."

One factor in the Knights favour is their record against Parramatta, one of the few clubs in the NRL that the Knights have had the better of over the past decade.

Remarkably, the Knights have won 11 or their past 13 games against the Eels dating back to 2010 with the two defeats coming in wooden spoon years, 2015 and 2016.

Earlier this season, the Knights snapped a five game losing streak with a 28-14 win at McDonald Jones Stadium, sparked by an inspired performance from Pearce.

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It was the start of a run of six straight wins that was the talk of the NRL and catapulted the side into top four contention prior to their recent win drought. While the winner of the forward battle will likely decide the outcome, Pearce's halfback duel with in-form Mitch Moses will also be crucial. Moses never got into the contest when the two sides met in Newcastle but he leads the NRL for try assists with 20 and his game management and general play kicking has been a feature of the Eels resurgence over the past two months.

In contrast, Pearce has been below his best since Origin lll but with so much on the line, he is the type of player to pull out a big game when it is most needed.

Meanwhile, key Eels forward Nathan Brown is in doubt for the clash with an ankle injury.

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