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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald

What Jayden Brailey's return means for the Knights: David Klemmer

BACK IN ACTION: Knights hooker Jayden Brailey poses for a team photo surrounded by props David Klemmer, Daniel Saifiti and Jacob Saifiti earlier this year. The club captain returns via the interchange bench against South Sydney at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday night. Picture: Jonathan Carroll

It was heart-breaking for Jayden Brailey when he suffered his pre-season injury.

As a mate, it sucked knowing how hard he had trained after the off-season. He looked in really good knick.

I wasn't there when he ruptured his Achilles, a few of us boys were down in Sydney getting some tests done.

We were all sitting in a room waiting around and all of a sudden all of our phones started going off.

It was obviously pretty big news him going down.

We ended up calling him and had him on loudspeaker. It was gut-wrenching hearing what had happened.

We couldn't believe it.

It happened in January after we had got all of our combinations worked out too, so it was a massive loss.

Jayden was pretty shattered, especially after last year when he played so well for us. I thought he had a great year and was building into another big one.

But the season is not over yet, it's just held him back.

At the time of Jayden's injury, Chris Randall was training at lock.

He had done that for the whole preseason, eight weeks before Christmas and a few after, so he didn't have long to slip back into hooker and nail it before we started playing.

He has done an outstanding job.

I could see as Jayden was going about his recovery how badly he wanted to get back.

HARD WORK: Jayden Brailey at training on Wednesday. Picture: Simone De Peak

It's a credit to him how committed he is to his footy.

He will bring leadership, game awareness and work ethic for us. He is a huge inclusion and will be great for our halves, Milf and Cluney.

It will take him a couple of weeks to get to 80 minutes, but he will get there. I'm so happy to see him back with us and we're all pumped as a playing group and a club.

As for Edrick Lee, what a man.

He has been in some dark places with his injuries and some stuff off the field in recent years.

So to see him come back, and the smile he had on his face walking back from every try on Friday - I'll never forget it.

To find out after the game he had broken the club record for the most tries in a game, there are some great wingers that have played for the Knights and players who had scored four.

We had no idea during the game about the record, we were sitting around in the sheds afterwards and someone mentioned it. We were so pumped for him.

Obviously we were all pretty stoked after our win over the Titans, but for me personally I love seeing what a win like that does for the support staff and the fans.

It was pouring rain, but they all stuck around after the game. It's a great feeling when you are able to make someone happy for 80 minutes, and we finally did that.

It was a good win and we soaked it up afterwards, but got straight back into it this week. We're keen to build on that performance and face a tough task against South Sydney at home on Friday.

Hopefully the rain stays away!

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