Kalyn Ponga had the same foot injury as Nathan Cleary. He was off his feet for six weeks

Kalyn Ponga is backing fellow superstar Nathan Cleary to overcome the same foot injury that kept him off his feet for six weeks during the pre-season.

Penrith confirmed on Monday night that their medical team would continue to assess Cleary ahead of next weekend’s preliminary final after scans confirmed he had a “stress-related bone issue in his foot”.

Ponga encountered the same injury before returning to Newcastle pre-season training at the end of last year, and was forced off his feet because of the pain.

Like Cleary, Ponga risked turning a micro-fracture into a full-blown one if he pushed too hard at training. Unlike Cleary, Ponga had the luxury of the summer to take his time with his recovery, with club medical staff happy to back off his program when the pain became unbearable.

“I had stress fractures in my bones, it was painful, but you can play with it – Nathan will play with it, no doubt,” Ponga told this masthead.

“I did a couple of pre-season training sessions with it. It will be sore warming up, but once you get going, it’s not too bad.

“I did mine from over-running. I was trying to do longer-distance running in the off-season, I thought it would be quite cool, but it was wearing my bone down.

“Once I got to actual pre-season, it was pretty painful. If I kept going, it [the bone] could have broken.

“I had to be off my feet for about five or six weeks. If it was right now, and I was three games out from a grand final, you’d play on one foot – someone like Nathan, he’s such quality, he could get around the park on one foot.

“I can only speak about my injury and the pain I felt. I’m not sure if you keep playing and how that affects you.”

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary told SEN radio on Tuesday: “The injury is definitely the impact of overuse and all that kind of stuff.

“He kicks a lot, does a lot, runs a lot, does the most metres every game of every player. It all adds up.

“He spends more time now doing mental reps as well, [and] I think he is really going to have to lean on that mental side over the coming weeks, because he is going to have to pull back.

“He knows he has kicked enough balls. He’ll just spend enough time going through mental rehearsal, and that will do the trick.”

Ponga missed the final couple of months of the 2025 season with a Lisfranc injury in his left foot, but his stress fractures that impacted his pre-season, the first under coach Justin Holbrook, were in the right foot.

A big reason Newcastle fans will be optimistic about causing a semi-final boilover against the Warriors on New Zealand soil this Sunday – which would book them a week-three showdown against Penrith and potentially Cleary – is Ponga.

South Sydney’s Latrell Mitchell made a point of referencing Ponga after their loss to the Knights last Friday and said: “He turned up today and really showed the NRL why he is one of the best players in the league.”

During the same post-game coverage on Nine, the owners of this masthead, Ponga was asked about Holbrook and said: “What a guy.”

Pressed on that comment, Ponga said on Tuesday: “You hear the playing group reflects your coach, and I believe that’s true. We don’t overcome the adversity and challenges we’ve had this year without someone like him steering the ship.

“His calmness, his ability to get on with things, he doesn’t make an issue too big or small, and finds reasons to win, not reasons to lose.

“He gives everyone the space to be themselves on and off the field, which makes you be the best version of yourself.”

Pressed on how Holbrook had made Ponga a better player, he said: “I know this sounds crazy, but he sat me down in the pre-season and said, ‘I want you to be yourself, come into training, your strength is to train well, be a leader on the field, and don’t feel like you have to do anything else’. I thought, ‘that’s perfect for me’.

“[I re-signed with the Knights until the end of 2030] because of him and Dyl Brown.

“I felt how it felt to play with Dyl in round one in Vegas, then again in round two, and with a lot of the younger boys coming through … but that was pretty big to have Dyl Brown here.

“He’s here the next 10 years. He’s a quality half, winning the comp is the main thing for me, and the only way you do that is to have quality players in your team.”