Blake Green says he just wants to keep doing his part for the team amid speculation he could be moved off the Knights roster to make room for likely mid-season recruits Jake Clifford and Matt Lodge.
The Newcastle Herald reported on Sunday that Cowboys halfback Clifford, who was to join the Knights next season on a two-year deal, will likely link with the club this weekend after a final game for North Queensland.
A deal to also bring Broncos prop Lodge to Newcastle mid-season is in the works. Lodge and Clifford could both be available to play for the Knights against Parramatta at home on June 6.
However, if both do sign, the club will need to move one player off their 30-man roster to make room and it was speculated that Green could be that man.
The 34-year-old half, five games into his comeback from a knee reconstruction, is on a one-year deal and has been tipped to join Newcastle's coaching staff for 2022. The Knights are 12th on the NRL ladder and have lost seven of their past nine games.
Asked on Monday if he wanted to stay on the field for the rest of the season, Green said: "I just want to keep doing my part for the team".
"Things aren't going great for us, but we know exactly where we are at and what we need to do to fix it, so I'll just keep playing my part and hopefully it turns for us."
Despite the potential implications for him, Green welcomed the likely early arrival of Clifford.
"I think it's a great opportunity for us to get someone like Jake in who's obviously locked into the club for the next couple of years," he said. "So if that falls into place for us, I think it's only a positive thing that we can get him in early."
As for Lodge coming to the club, he said: "We can't worry too much about those possibilities, we just need to keep focusing on working really hard and just getting ourselves out of this little hole we're in."
Green admitted "it's been tough" returning from major injury into a side struggling for form and without No.1 halfback Mitchell Pearce and now star fullback Kalyn Ponga.
"It was a long road back to coming back on the field," he said.
"In an ideal world it would have been nice to slot into a team where probably Mitchell and Kalyn were both playing but that's just not the cards we've been dealt.
"Everyone at the club, we're under no illusions of how we're travelling. We need to be better and we're just going to keep working hard until it turns for us."
The Knights expect to have Ponga, who has missed the past two games with an adductor strain, back for Sunday's clash with Manly at McDonald Jones Stadium. Centre Bradman Best (hamstring) could also return after missing last week's 36-20 loss to North Queensland.
"Fingers crossed, we're a chance of Kalyn or Bradman coming back," Green said of the clash with the Sea Eagles.
"We've got a lot of young kids at the moment, so any form of experience coming back into the side will be a bonus.
"It's obviously indigenous round this week, it's a special week for our footy club.
"We need to be much better in so many areas, but we've got a full week of training ahead, we're back home on Sunday and I'm sure we'll be much better."
Green was released from a one-year deal at the Bulldogs to stay at the Knights. He came to Newcastle - his seventh NRL club - midway through 2020 but suffered a season-ending knee injury in his third game.
It was reported that Green was set to move into coaching at the club next season but he said he was focused on his job this year.
"I love footy, I've been involved with the game for a long time, it's given me so much," said Green, who was visiting St Columban's Primary School at Mayfield on Monday as part of the Knights' Adopt-A-School program.
"Just like today, an opportunity to come back and spend time with the kids, but yeah certainly, I'd love to get involved with the coaching side of things when I'm finished.
"But at the moment my focus is just on the footy team and us doing well."
He said the Adopt-A-School program was "a great concept".
"We try to get out here once a month, and more often when we can," he said. "We get to spend some one-on-one time with some kids who need a little bit of help with their schooling, or just as a bit of a mentor."
