It has been a long hard road back to the football field for Liam Knight, but it only took one game in reserve grade for Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou to know he was ready for his NRL return.
Knight made a successful return to the NRL last night in South Sydney’s win against Melbourne, coming off the bench and making 11 runs for 67 metres in his 27 minutes.
Last week, he took his first hit-ups since rupturing his ACL and MCL last year playing for South Sydney’s New South Wales Cup side, with good friend and teammate Jai Arrow amongst the group of supporters who ventured to Wagga Wagga to see him play the match against Canberra Raiders.
“He was a bit shocked when I told him I wanted him to play this week,” Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou told media.
"I saw enough in him in his reserve grade game last week and I’ve seen enough in him this past three or four months to know he was ready to step up,
“It gives us an opportunity to give Cam a spell either side of halftime which is important and still keep that ball-playing middle forward on the field.
“Like I said to him, it’s a start and he should be proud to be out there and enjoying it.
“I think he’s spoken about it, it’s been pretty well documented, but I just want to give a rap to his teammates, I think they create an environment where they support each other and Knighty feels that.
“I think guys like Cam (Murray), Cooky (Damien Cook) and guys like that and Jai Arrow played a big part in how he’s handled the past few months but it’s pretty special.”
As well as overcoming his physical injury, Knight has also recently opened up about his mental health struggles and sharing how he was dealing with his battle with prescription drugs and binge drinking. Since facing up to his issues, he spent time in a rehab facility and is now six months sober as well.
“I’m in the best place I've been in, am six-and-a-half months off the drink,” Knight said.
“It's probably best for me, (now I am) just training hard and keeping myself out of trouble and keep working hard.
“(When I told my story) I was overwhelmed with support from family and friends and from random people reaching out and people who were struggling, who said thank you for sharing and giving them some inspiration to ask for help or stop drinking, whatever it was, it was amazing.
“It was actually too much to take on at first, I didn't know what to do, it felt weird with a lot of people messaging, so it was overwhelming.”
After his strong return to the field, Knight said his focus now was to continue training and playing well.
“(My goals now are to) just keep earning my spot on the team, show the club the faith (they had in me) was worth it and keep showing up every week, and try to stay on the team.”
