BY CURTIS WOODWARD

@woodward_curtis

No matter if you are the number one ticket holder of the Kalyn Ponga fan club or on the other side and think he hasn’t quite taken that next step in his evolution to become one of the true greats of the modern game – everyone in the sport no doubt has their fingers crossed the 25-year-old can get through his return match this weekend against North Queensland in Townsville.

The Newcastle Knights skipper has been named to start in the halves on Saturday night which will be his first game since being knocked unconscious against Wests Tigers in the opening exchanges of their round two match at Leichhardt Oval.

A week earlier, Ponga was sent from the field by the referee for a HIA late in the game against the Warriors in Wellington.

There were already concerns for the Newcastle captain well before he fell to the Leichhardt turf back in March after numerous head knocks and concussions in the previous twelve months.

So concerned were the Knights and doing the right thing, they sent the seven-time Queensland State of Origin representative to Canada for testing and help him best recover from the concussions that have plagued his career.

“Kalyn will undergo testing using a device that measures neurophysiological markers, which in turn will assist clinical decision making around recovery following concussion and provide further objective information to guide our clinicians,” the club said in a statement at the time.

“The assessment will involve technology that is approved for use in Northern America however not yet available in Australia.”

Now he’s back and ready to pull the socks on for the Knights again.

We all want him to get through this weekend.

Who cares about try assists, highlight reels or fantasy points.

Let’s just hope he can play a bit of footy and contribute.

This is, after all, his 100^th NRL appearance.

Let him enjoy that for half a second.

Some may not understand how important this comeback is.

The Knights need their poster boy captain but it’s baby steps in his recovery.

“I’m good… four weeks ago there was talk about retirement,” Ponga said upon his return from Vancouver.

“To go over to Canada and get clarity about what I am doing and what I can do, it’s reassuring for me. I should be back in not too long.

“I just want to get back on the field, doing what I love with the boys.

“We got the best result I could over there. That was the result I got, that ‘you are able to go back and play, your brain is in a healthy position to do so’, [so that’s] really reassuring and positive news.”

Even Ponga himself acknowledged the “retirement talk”.

Which makes calls from experts and Maroons legends alike to throw Ponga straight back into the State of Origin arena in Game I at the Adelaide Oval on the 31^st of May more alarming.

On Wednesday night, former Queensland captain Gorden Tallis named his Maroons side on NRL360 on Fox League and right there at the top, at fullback, was Kalyn Ponga.

Really?

Do we want to do that to the bloke?

Round 7: 2023 Beetson Raudonikis Medal

In a perfect world, Ponga runs out on Saturday night and finds some form and he never gets another head knock for the rest of his career.

But let’s get serious.

Where’s the duty of care?

This is State of Origin.

Do the New South Wales Blues become the bad guys if they (legally) target Ponga and he’s knocked out again?

That could, seriously, be the end of his career.

Ponga is not walking a tight rope, he’s tiptoeing on string with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Let him become Kalyn Ponga again before we throw him back into State of Origin.

@woodward_curtis