Knight’s Sharpe rise from hospital bed to NRL finals
Scott Bailey |
When Fletcher Sharpe takes the field for his maiden NRL final, it won’t be lost on the Newcastle star that little more than 12 months ago he was confined to bed with serious organ damage.
Or that when his 2026 pre-season began last summer, the five-eighth was close to the Knights’ slowest player after months of enforced inactivity.
“His first day back in pre-season was pretty bad,” Knights captain Kalyn Ponga quipped to AAP this week.
“He hadn’t run all off-season; he wasn’t allowed to. We did the 1.2 (kilometre run) day one, and he was pretty shabby.”
Sharpe’s horror injury late last year was largely forgotten amid Newcastle’s nightmarish 2025. But the 22-year-old’s return this year may make for the comeback story of this season.
It was in June 2025 that Sharpe was left worse for wear after a head knock in a match against the Dolphins in Perth.
Within hours he was being operated on, after doctors discovered the excitement machine had ruptured his kidneys and damaged his spleen.
“It was obviously pretty confronting early on,” Sharpe said ahead of Friday’s elimination final against South Sydney.
“And then it was a long old haul back to the field. That four months of doing not much at all and just waiting around, kicking stones that you can’t be out there.
“I was bedridden for about two or three months, and then returning I was probably running at the back barely keeping my legs ticking over and barely catching a ball.”
Not that it has shown in Sharpe’s football this year.
Sharpe hit the ground running against North Queensland in their season opener in Las Vegas and offered glimpses of what Newcastle’s attack could become, before limping off with a knee injury after 26 minutes.
In 22 games this season he has scored 12 tries and set up 11, doing so in his first real season as a five-eighth.
“From mid-year, and I know definitely in the last six to eight weeks, I think I’ve found a good rhythm to my game,” Sharpe said.
“It definitely took a little while, but I feel like I’ve found the groove now, and the balance between running and ball-playing.”
It’s a feat that is not lost on Ponga, who is the first to admit he struggled with his brief cameos at five-eighth during attempted shifts in 2019 and 2023.
“I hated it. I couldn’t tackle,” Ponga said.
“People don’t find their feet in that position for two or three years. But he’s making it look easy.
“You talk to him now, he loves it. He prefers it to fullback, so that makes me happy. Because I would be in his position wanting to go back.
“But I think that just speaks to the sort of talent that he is. He’s just a natural footy player. He puts himself in positions and earns everything he gets.”
AAP