Ross dogged by fracture in back

NEWCASTLE cult hero Nathan Ross is feeling lucky despite suffering a fractured back in Saturday’s New Zealand victory.

The Gold Coast junior was hospitalised after an accidental knee from Blake Ayshford and is facing a three to six week recovery. “Scariest moment of my career!’’ he wrote on Instagram. “I am so extremely lucky that we have such great medical staff at Newcastle who looked after me.’’

Despite Ross’s injury there is plenty of optimism at Newcastle, with Knights legend Andrew Johns believing their run of good form could be converted into a finals appearance as soon as next season. Wooden spooners for the past two seasons, they have won back-to-back games.

Johns hailed the growth of juniors Daniel Saifiti, Luke Yates, Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Brock Lamb and skipper Sione Mata’utia, all under 22 years of age.

“The players they’ve bought next year with a bit of class, another off-season, I think next year they’ll be around semi-final area, around the eight.” Johns, who was part of the Knights’ premierships in 1997 and 2001, reserved special praise for the development of Lamb.