KNIGHTS coach Brian Smith revealed yesterday that Wes Naiqama broke a bone in his foot more than 24 hours before playing the full 80 minutes in Friday night's victory over Penrith at CUA Stadium.

Naiqama will be recuperating for at least three to four weeks after fracturing a metatarsal, but Smith said it was remarkable that his stint on the sidelines did not start one game earlier.

"He did it the day before the game at training," Smith said.

"He stood on another guy's foot. He was in a fair bit of pain, but nobody knew it was broken.

"It got worse and worse as the game went on, but he just refused to give in to it.

"If he'd pulled out, with so many blokes already injured, it would have put a real load on us.

"So it was a pretty heroic effort on his behalf."

Smith said Naiqama had painkilling injections at half-time to help him soldier on.

The former St George Illawarra utility back has been a rock since joining Newcastle this season, playing in all16 games at either centre or fullback.

Smith admitted his absence in coming weeks was another major blow to a Newcastle team already depleted by injuries to Danny Buderus (knee), Steve Simpson (hip), Ben Cross (knee/thumb), Matt Hilder (thumb) and Jesse Royal (knee).

Defensively, in particular, the Knights will miss Naiqama's experience and physical presence.

"A big part of changing our team around the way we did was so that we could put Wes on our right edge, because we felt Michael Jennings and

Frank Pritchard are Pen rith's most dangerous players," Smith said.

"They score a lot of tries down that left edge and carved Parra up down that side the week before.

"Wes has been really good in defence and he makes that side really solid. "We'll definitely miss that and we'll have to do some practice on that this week, because again with Cronulla, their left side is where they score most of their tries."

Smith said young wingers Cooper Vuna and Akuila Uate were the most likely replacements for Naiqama, which would mean veteran Aam MacDougall shifting rom wing to centre.

Uate scored a try in yesterday's 42-18 loss to NorthSydney in the NSW Cup.

Smith said he had been told  Vuna, dropped from first grade for the first time in 25 games, had also played strongly against the Bears.

"Cooper played right centre today, because we wanted to get him involved in the game a bit," Smith said.

"It will probably come down to him and Aku.

"There's a bit of a tough choice between those two. "Apparently they both played pretty well today, so I'll have a look at the video first thing in the morning and take it from there."

Another centre contender, Keith Lulia, suffered a leg injury against the Bears yesterday.

Newcastle's other injury concerns from Friday night are five-eighth Chris Bailey (calf) and prop Dan Tolar (hamstring).

Meanwhile, luckless half back Luke Walsh suffered a suspected broken thumb playing against the Bears yesterday.