nib Newcastle Knights coach Nathan Brown confirmed Mitch Barnett's ankle injury will keep the forward out for an extended period of time.
"Mitch is definitely going to be out for a period," Brown told the media after training on Tuesday.
"I’m not sure to the extent, it’s definitely a six- eight week injury at the moment.
"It may be worse but we’re not quite sure yet."
The loss of Barnett is in addition to the likes of Jamie Buhrer, Rory Kostjasyn and Dylan Phythian who are unavailable.
"We’ve had a bad run of late to people quite important to us, but it’s a tough game rugby league," Brown added.
While the focus shifts to taking on the Gold Coast Titans this weekend, the loss to the Cowboys in Round 8 remained disappointing.
"We do things well for periods and we look really good. But we don’t do them well enough for long enough," Brownd said.
"Last year we didn’t do them at all though.
"But it’s that consistency bit, that’s the difference between being an okay player, an average player or a good NRL player.
"Your good NRL sides have got a fair bit of experience who know how to do it consistently."
Meanwhile Brown admmitted Jaelen Feeney is likely to replace Trent Hodkinson at halfback in Round 9.
"We just picked the team (in Round 8) that was based around form and Hodko is a little down on confidence at the moment," the coach said.
"Jaelen played a bit of halves last week and he plays there and is definitely putting his hands up.
"When he came on the field the other day he was very good."
The Knights take on the Titans at Cbus Super Stadium this Saturday.
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