The Newcastle rugby league coach Wayne Bennett has confirmed utility Kurt Gidley will fill the hooking role vacated by Danny Buderus and is confident the injury-prone star will be fit for the start of the NRL season.
Gidley missed the latter part of the Knights' 2013 campaign after suffering an ankle injury in the penultimate round of the NRL season in September.
Gidley played just 19 games in the past two seasons during which he suffered shoulder, foot and ankle problems.
