'Like a shark bite': Knights forward Kai Pearce-Paul rushed to hospital mid-match for horror gash

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW

Knights backrower Kai Pearce-Paul was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery on Saturday night following an injury that Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien called "a shark bite".

Newcastle got home 36-16 over South Sydney but after the match there were questions regarding Pearce-Paul, who went down late in the first half when a rogue stud from a teammate split his shin open and caused a 15cm gash.

He was taken to hospital during the match and rushed into surgery to close the wound.

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"I just saw a photo of it then and it nearly made me crook, it's awful," O'Brien said in his post-match press conference.

"It's like a shark bite at the moment, it's huge.

"He's at the hospital now."

Newcastle skipper Kalyn Ponga added: "He got split, a stud, like, cut him open," Ponga said.

There was some concern that Pearce-Paul may have came in contact with a protruding sprinkler head at Accor Stadium but the Knights confirmed it was a stud.

A similar injury occurred in the AFL in 2020, when Collingwood's Isaac Quaynor was forced out for three weeks after suffering a 15-20cm gash.

The AFL investigated the incident and found the boots that caused the injury were non-compliant.