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LINKNewcastle Knights and NSW Blues winger Akuila Uate struggling with groin injury
Barry Toohey
June 23, 2012 9:28AM
Wounded ... Both the Knights and Blues will be sweating on the fitness of Uate.
Under-fire Blues winger Akuila Uate is being hampered by a groin injury and is racing the clock to play for the Knights against Wests Tigers on Monday night.
Uate, under pressure in some quarters to hold his spot in the NSW side for the Origin decider after a sub-par performance in game two, has not trained with the Knights since the Blues win.
He missed the club's session again yesterday but the official line out of the Knights camp is he will be right to play come Monday night's NRL game at Hunter Stadium.
Whether that changes if he is chosen in the Blues lineup on Sunday night remains to be seen but he is expected to take part in the Knights' final session tomorrow.
"He might be in a bit of doubt, I'm not too sure," teammate Darius Boyd said yesterday. "Hopefully, he'll be okay."
Knights forward Adam Cuthbertson said yesterday the side's extended break after having the bye last weekend had proved refreshing in the build up to the Tigers game.
Coach Wayne Bennett gave his players nine days off after their loss to Canberra a fortnight ago and told them to get away and forget about football.
He's hoping the break will be the catalyst to spark a revival after five straight defeats.
"We've had some fun this week (back at training) and concentrated on ourselves,"Cuthbertson said.
"We need to turn up and do it for the fans and try and turn the season around."
While the Knights have not spoken too much about the opposition this week, Cuthbertson says the Tigers will come to Newcastle ready to play.
"They had a tough week last weekend coming out of the tragic news of Robbie's (Farah) mum passing but they'll want to turn it around as well," he said.
Asked about how the reaction of fans to the side's losing streak has affected the team, Cuthbertson said: "A lot of people on the outside don't see all the work we are putting in off the field.
"We are really putting in and doing our best to improve ourselves and turn up to win every week. We've just got to put the evidence of training on the field and start proving a few people wrong."
