Chris Heighington is devastated for teammate Slade Griffin.
The veteran forward admits he was right beside the Knights hooker when he suffered the season-ending injury to his knee in Saturday's game against the Bulldogs.
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"It was terrible, I was right there when it happened," Heighington said.
"At least he did a try assist before he went down."
This being Griffin's third ACL injury, it's a long road to recovery.
But the 36-year-old has all the confidence Griffin will fight back with vigour to return to the paddock as soon as he can.
"He's a great player, a great leader and I'm sure he'll fight to get back. He ticks every box every week to be the consistent player he is, so you'll see him again that's for sure," Heighington stated.
"He's got the drive and the focus so looking forward to seeing him back."
Despite losing both Griffin and Kalyn Ponga in Saturday's match, with the star fullback carted from the field due to a hamstring strain, Heighington demanded that was no excuse for their performance on the weekend.
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"I thought we still could have got the win," he said.
"We trained really well leading into the game but didn't get the job done which is really disappointing.
"All our review was on how they scored barge over; we highlighted those areas and they still scored like that.
"We had a heap of opportunities in attack and we didn't take them. They probably should have only scored about 18 points."
Going in to a bye this week is not a good way to light the flame in preparation for next weekend's clash against the Parramatta Eels.
But the solution; head down, bum up.
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"Putting your head down and working really hard as an individual and if the individual beside you is working really hard, it falls your way." Explained Heighington.
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"Few wins on the trot and you're back in the mix and the way the season has gone with each team, no one has really shown a heap of consistency in the bottom eight and beyond, so anything can still happen.
"We've just got to worry about ourselves and getting the win against Parra."
The good news is a few players are set to return from injury.
Mitchell Pearce is on track to be back on deck for Round 18 against the Eels, while big man Daniel Saifiti is also a hope to make his return.
"We've got a few likely to come back from injury," Heighington said.
"We have a lot injured, there's no denying that but hopefully we can get a few back after the break."
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