Despite the importance of the game to his side's finals hopes, the Knights coach, as expected, has opted not to roll the dice with veteran halfback Mitchell Pearce, who will miss his third straight game due to a slight hamstring tear.

Instead, O'Brien will look to his inform forward pack, a refreshed Kalyn Ponga and the return from injury of strike centre Bradman Best to inspire a victory that would re-ignite their campaign.

As it stands going into this weekend's round, the Knights sit in 11^th place on the NRL ladder on 16 points.

With six games remaining, they are level with the Titans [10th], two points behind the ninth-placed Raiders. The Dragons [7th] and Sharks [8th] are also on 18 points.

A loss would leave Newcastle four adrift of the Raiders and possibly also the Dragons and Sharks, depending on their results.

With a poor differential, the Knights finals' chances would be on life support.

A win however, would put them right back in the frame with games remaining against the Broncos, Sharks, Titans and the Broncos again. Pearce is considered a strong chance to be on deck for Brisbane next Thursday night.

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While officially losing the key playmaker is a body blow, the news around Ponga is far more encouraging after he took a sternum injury into last weekend's game against the Sydney Roosters.

The star fullback played with the aid of a pain-killing injection against the Roosters but did not have the impact in the game he normally does with fears it could develop into an on-going issue to manage for the rest of the season.

But O'Brien said Ponga did no further damage to his sternum in the game and the injury had improved considerable over the course of the week since. He is expecting a near fully-fit Ponga to be a major threat against the Raiders.

"His body seems a whole lot better than it was and he's trained with plenty of intensity which is a really good sign," O'Brien told the Newcastle Herald.

"He was disappointed after the Roosters game but he went into that game having hardly trained at all in the build-up. He's had a full week with the team this week and he's got a bit of a look about him at the moment so I'm excited to see him play.

"Like everyone in the group, he recognises the importance of this game to our season and with Junior not there, there's some added responsibility there which I'm sure he'll handle.

"He's done a really good job with some video stuff he has presented to the group this week as well so I'm looking forward to him getting out there and playing."

Best's inclusion is also significant while interchange prop David Klemmer is back in a further boost after missing the Roosters game due to concussion.

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