While the injury is not considered serious and the surgery will be routine [we're told it will just be a clean out], the timing will be the interesting thing.

It's expected he will sit down with Adam O'Brien and the club's medical staff after the Knights finals series commitments are done to talk it over. It would be a huge call for him to pull out, given his Maroons passion.

A lot will hinge on how the Knights fullback feels and whether he believes he will be able to handle a three game Origin series with back-to-back, high-intensity games and then just how much the surgery will cut into his off-season if he delays having it done.

The Knights fullback is understood to have been carrying the shoulder problem for more than a month but has not been overly impacted by it during games although some of his defence has been under the microscope in recent times.

A quick look at his stats for the season tells you why. In 18 games, Ponga has made just 51 tackles and missed a whopping 37.

But he is a matchwinner with the footy and the good news for Knights fans is he did not appear to be carrying his shoulder at all during a light training session in front of the club's pledged members at McDonald Jones Stadium on Monday.

It's one of the great mysteries that Knights prop David Klemmer is apparently not currently considered an automatic selection in the NSW Origin squad to take on the Maroons in November.

For some unknown reason, there are those who believe Klemmer's form has fallen away this season, among them Andrew Johns, with the Eighth Immortal not even including him on the bench when he named his Blues squad last week.

Now we know statistics aren't the be-all-and-end-all and can send a distorted message but we'll throw some at you anyway and you can make up your own minds.

In 20 games [he hasn't missed one] this year, Klemmer has run for 3495 metres at an average of 174 metres per game. He's sixth overall and second behind Penrith's James Fisher-Harris among the forwards in the NRL. Significantly, his 1461 post-contact metres ranks him first in the competition.

As a comparison, the Raiders' Josh Papalii has run for 627 metres less and is averaging 150 metres a game and the Eels' Junior Paulo has ran for 3152 metres at an average of 157 per game. Paulo was 11th overall in post-contact metres and Papalii 18th.

Those sorts of big numbers are par for the course for Klemmer, who produced similar figures last year when he played for NSW and the Kangaroos. But where he has taken his game to a new level under Adam O'Brien this season is with the footy.

In 2018, he finished 41st overall for off-loads with 24 while he was 38th overall last season with 23. This season, he has produced 45 off-loads to be second only to Paulo [48].

We'll let you be the judge about Klemmer and his form.

Still on Klemmer and there will be some celebrating to be done on the domestic front for him and his family come the end of the year. Klemmer and his wife Chloe are expecting their fourth child. The big news is it will be a little sister for the couple's three young sons - Cooper, Jaxon and David.

"She's going to be a COVID baby and she's due on Christmas Day so that is going to be really special," Klemmer said.

New Knights signing Tyson Frizell and his young family will be spending a few days in Newcastle within the next couple of weeks to have a good look around before the ex-Dragons backrower goes back into the bubble with the NSW Origin squad.

Frizell, who currently lives at Cronulla, is looking to rent initially when he relocates before looking for a family home.

Knights CEO Phil Gardner has confirmed the club has enough money left in the salary cap for next season to sign a five-eighth and a backrower/prop if the right players become available.

In an interview with Toohey's News:The Podcast, he claimed those positions were the priorities at this stage.

Mitch Barnett has done it tough this week with he and his family subjected to some sickening abuse on social media following allegations he racially abused Tyrone Peachey.

Helping him get through it was the support from the club and his teammates, in particular the Knights' indigenous contingent, who have been right behind him.

Daniel Saifiti posted this on Instagram: "I was one of his groomsmen and he'll be one of mine 100 percent. If he were a racist, or was a bad person, he wouldn't be one of my best mates. Happy to see this put behind ya. Always got your back, love ya lad."

Former ARL boss John Quayle will be watching tomorrow's clash between the Knights and South Sydney at his property in the Upper Hunter near Denman. He should be doing so with a sense of pride and achievement.

Quayle never chases the accolades but for a number of years, he played an integral role as a Knights board member and adviser in the club remaining in Newcastle after the collapse of Nathan Tinkler's ownership.

"To see the Knights in the finals after such a tough period is a great reward for everyone involved, especially the Wests Group for coming on board and taking over," Quayle told us.