The so-called deal has been whispered in league circles for the past few days with Klemmer completely in the dark when contacted about it on Monday by the Sydney media.

He wasn't the only one caught by surprise. O'Brien told the Newcastle Herald the first he knew about it was when contacted by his frontrower.

"Where does this stuff come from?" O'Brien asked. "It's never been discussed. I just told Klem it was the first I'd heard of it and to not worry about it."

Knights head of recruitment Clint Zammit was also blindsided by the rumour and reassured Klemmer the club was not looking to off-load him.

Klemmer, who is managed by the same company that looks after Lodge, told the media yesterday he is comfortable there is no substance to the rumour.

"Me and Adzy [O'Brien] have a great relationship and he's rubbished it - there's nothing there," Klemmer said. "Adzy said 'just don't worry about it'.

"The club has been very supportive and when you're losing, there is always stuff like that thrown around."

Ironically, the rumour surfaced following arguably Klemmer's best game of the season in the Knights' morale-boosting win over the Canberra Raiders in Wagga.

In 52 minutes, he ran for 205 metres from 20 hit-ups, easily more than any other player on the field and finished with 27 tackles. His only blemishes were a lost ball and a forward pass.

It's not the first time the Knights have been connected to Lodge. Back in 2018, it's common knowledge former coach Nathan Brown tried to sign the Broncos prop before he re-signed with his current club. According to sources at the Knights, that ship has now well and truly sailed.

It was following the Lodge knock-back that the Knights secured Klemmer from the Bulldogs soon after.

Both players are managed by deregistered player agent Issac Moses' company Cove Agency with reports over the past month suggesting Broncos coach Kevin Walters would be happy to release Lodge from the final year of his $800,000-a-season contract in 2022 to free up salary cap space if a deal could be done with a rival club.

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Meanwhile, O'Brien has shown faith in the same 17 players who got the job done in Wagga against the Raiders last weekend by naming an unchanged line-up for his side's Magic Round clash against the Wests Tigers in Brisbane on Friday night.

Regular winger Hymel Hunt has been cleared to return from a hamstring strain that has kept him out for the past three matches. Despite his availability, O'Brien has resisted the temptation to rush him straight back into the side with Brayden Musgrove and Starford To'a both preferred.

Musgrove left the field late in the Raiders game clutching at his ribs and initially, there were fears he may have re-fractured the same rib he broke earlier in the season. But he was cleared of any damage following x-rays and says he'll be right to play.

"I stirred up the old injury a bit again but there's nothing broken so I'll be sweet," he told the Herald.

Once again, Edrick Lee was not considered with O'Brien insisting his Queensland Origin winger won't be rushed back from his broken foot until the medical staff is 100 percent satisfied he is ready.

"Edrick's still a wait and see at this stage," O'Brien said. "He is still not quite right so we are not taking any risks with him."

The coach said the win over Canberra, while relieving some pressure, was nothing to get carried away with.

"We did the review and there was plenty of stuff we weren't happy with," he said.

"Defensively in the first half, our contact wasn't up to scratch which is why they got so many off-loads. We need to fix that and get rid of the errors."

O'Brien said his side only needed to look back to the last time the Knights played the Wests Tigers to recognise Friday's clash will be a danger game.

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