Kade Dykes declares he’ll fight back after third major knee injury

An emotional Kade Dykes has revealed why he won’t give up on chasing his NRL career despite suffering a third season-ending knee injury, writes David Riccio.

Tears are welling in the eyes of Kade Dykes.

The 23-year-old Sharks rookie is staring out over an empty Shark Park, listening to the questions being asked of him.

He sits in the first row of seats in the grandstand, unable to manoeuvre his crutches and his knee any further along the pale blue seats, with his knee still red, swollen and tight from surgery.

Respectful and willing to share his story, Dykes answers the questions.

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Deep down, you just know that he never thought he’d be sitting here answering these questions again.

Not after tearing his ACL on his 21st Birthday in 2023.

Certainly not after being ruled out again in May, 2024, needing season-ending surgery to restore cartilage in his knee.

And definitely not after tearing his patella tendon on his ‘good knee’ just three games into his comeback 2025 season, two weeks ago in the NSW Cup.

Kade Dykes after undergoing another knee surgery. Credit: Supplied.

As Dykes shifts in his seat, you just know his mind is cluttered by the jigsaw puzzle of the next seven months.

He’s thinking about learning to walk again, learning to run again, the physiotherapy sessions, the boredom and the torment of being unable to do what he’s loved since his first game of rugby league when he was four-years-old.

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around having to go through it all again,” Dykes said.

“It’s still pretty raw. I got the surgery (last Wednesday) pretty quickly, which was good.

“Now that I’ve got the time, I’m at home doing nothing, I’m probably overthinking it a bit.

“I’ve been thinking about the worst case scenario.

“I suppose it will get better with time.”

Without a contract next season in the NRL, Dykes was aiming to put his case forward for a new deal by building his game through the NSW Cup with the Newtown Jets.

Devastating update on Kade Dykes - scans revealed a patellar tendon rupture after he suffered a knee injury this past weekend.

He will undergo surgery with a likely 6-9 month recovery ahead - one of the most challenging rehabs in sport. Wish him the best with process ahead. pic.twitter.com/jGa8NLJXfv

— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) April 29, 2025

Perhaps more importantly, the son of former Cronulla and Parramatta playmaker Adam Dykes, was just trying to find his rhythm and feel for the game again when without warning while carrying the footy, his knee collapsed in the 14th minute of his third game in 12-months and ninth game in three seasons.

“As soon as my foot hit the ground, I felt like something wasn’t right,” Dykes said.

“Then I sat up and looked at my kneecap and it had moved up a fair bit up my quad, so it looked out of whack.

“I thought I might have dislocated my knee. That’s what I was hoping because that’s not too long-term, but obviously it was a bit more than that.

“I was trying to straighten my leg and I just couldn’t.”

This is the part of Dykes’ story that will drag him out of bed every day going forward.

Within hours of his injury, the messages started pinging into his phone.

“Jacob Kiraz (Bulldogs winger) messaged me about two hours after I got home from the game,” Dykes said.

“He was one of the first people to message, which I thought was really nice.

Kade Dykes made is NRL debut for Cronulla in round 21 of 2022. Picture: NRL Photos

“I’d never met him before.

“I’ve obviously heard good things about him and a couple of the boys at the Dogs said that he was a legend, so that was really nice.

“Delouise Hoeter from the Broncos has obviously been through that (knee injury) himself, he reached out and messaged me to say that if I wanted any advice, he said I could message him.

“I’ve only got to look at Connor Tracey (Bulldogs fullback) for instance, he’s had three ACL’s all back-to-back and obviously we see the footy that he’s playing now.

“Adam Doueihi (Wests Tigers centre) is another one. There’s plenty of guys in the game that have had multiple long-term injuries, Billy Smith (Roosters centre) is another one as well.

“I was only watching him on the weekend thinking, far out, to think back about all the stuff that he’s been through.

“It definitely gives me confidence for sure.”

Dykes knows he has another mountain to climb. The medical advice is that he will aim to be running by Christmas.

After three lost seasons, Dykes is asked if he loves the game to continue pursuing a career that has proven so brutal to him?

“When it first happened, I probably spent a fair bit of time thinking whether this was going to be it,” Dykes said.

“The emotion probably hit me on the sideline when I was sitting there straight after it happened, I was thinking the worst.

“But I feel like I’ve come too far and put too much into it, to let it go. At least for now.

“It’s been my whole life since I was four.

“I just need to focus on getting everything right and then give it another crack.”