Right now Liam Knight is riding high after getting engaged to Channel Nine’s Danika Mason, but his journey to footy stardom has seen him overcome some huge setbacks.
Born in Alice Springs, the prop forward lost his mother to cancer when he was just five years old and moved from Alice to Adelaide, Darwin, Sydney, Brisbane and the NSW Central Coast with his dad.
Knight was a talented tennis player as a kid and won a tournament aged 15, and he also lived with his tennis coach Matt Roberts when his father went to Western Australia.
The 30-year-old was still a teenager when he got his big break with Manly in the NRL, starting out in the Sea Eagles’ under-19s side, but it was a very rough introduction to the footy world off the field.
‘My first year of full-time at Manly, I was homeless for three months,’ Knight revealed to Nine News in 2020.
‘I had to call mates up [to find a place to stay], it was pretty embarrassing at the time.
Liam Knight was homeless for a stretch when he first cracked the footy big time with the Manly Sea Eagles (pictured)
The prop forward found love with Channel Nine’s Danika Mason (pictured together) and the high-profile pair are now engaged
The former Bulldogs star proposed to Mason on an Italian beach, giving her a stunning diamond ring (pictured)
‘I spent two weeks somewhere, another three weeks at another mate’s place, six weeks at my best mate’s place and then another two-week stint somewhere.
‘I never had that family base around me or a network kind of thing, so if I ever needed anything, it was friends before my family.
‘I just sort of did what I wanted and it seemed to work for me when I was young.
‘Obviously when I started playing a bit more football at a higher level I got into a lot more trouble when people start looking at you a bit more.’
The most notable example of that trouble came in the form of Knight being hauled into court and pleading guilty to a high-range drink-driving charge in 2016.
According to court documents, Knight was followed by police while he was doing almost double the 70km/h on Sydney’s northern beaches and when they pulled him over he told them, ‘You got me, I’m over, you got me double.’
Knight was breathalysed, had his licence taken from him and was put in the back of a police car, where he found a can of Aeroguard insect repellent and sprayed it into his mouth in an attempt to beat any subsequent breath test.
He was given an 18-month good behaviour bond and banned from driving for eight months.
After making a mess of his time with the Roosters, Knight turned the corner as he played 66 matches with Souths (pictured)
Knight made headlines when he sprayed insect repellent into his mouth after being busted drink-driving during his time at Manly`
When a knee injury ended his season in 2022, Knight turned to prescription drugs and alcohol before getting help and attending rehab
‘To be honest, I can’t even remember the whole night, that’s how much of a mess I was,’ Knight said.
‘I’m not sure if it was a self-sabotage thing. Things started going alright for me, so I had a few too many beers, thought I was too cool and was trying to impress people, thinking I’ll drive drunk or whatever.
‘What followed was probably one of the toughest 18 months to two years mentally for me.’
He moved from Manly to the Roosters on a three-year deal starting in 2017, but that move ended in disaster – and Knight has been brutally honest about the reasons he failed.
‘I was there wasting space,’ he confessed.
‘I don’t think I was a good person when I was at the Roosters. I just took things for granted and thought I was a lot better than what I was.
‘I knew Robbo [coach Trent Robinson] wasn’t happy with me.
‘He said to my face “there is no future for you to play first grade in the near future. I don’t trust you”.
‘That’s what he said to my face.’
Knight played just nine NRL games with Canberra from 2017 to 2018, then his life changed during a phone call with Souths coach Wayne Bennett.
After Knight hung up on him at first, Bennett called back and said, ‘If you want to come to Sydney for an opportunity, I can turn you into a footballer.’
‘I remember one of the first chats I had with Wayne, he said, “I don’t really give a f**k about your past … I couldn’t care less. I’m going to meet you in person and we are going to go from there on a blank slate and then we are going to figure out who you are”,’ Knight recalled.
The talented forward clocked up 66 games for the Rabbitohs from 2019 to 2022, repaying Bennett’s faith in him.
However, he faced another huge setback when his season was ruined in a horror tackle in July 2022, rupturing the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his knee.
Facing a long and painful stint on the sidelines, Knight went overboard on alcohol and prescription drugs in an ordeal that led to him seeking help in rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous.
‘I said what I needed to say to keep everyone away,’ he told Fox Sports in March 2023.
‘I kept going further and further down this ladder into this darker hole, and then it stopped working. I’d party to escape.
‘The effect of the release would stop working, and then I realised I was sitting by myself and everything was numb.
‘I sort of lost all care factor and realised I was just sabotaging everything I had. It was pretty scary.
‘I just thought, I can’t be like this, this is not me … the scariest thing for me was asking for help.’
Knight said he numbed the pain with grog and prescription painkillers like Endone and Panadeine Forte before getting help from then-Souths coach Jason Demetriou.
He spent 28 days at the Foundation House rehab centre in Sydney’s west as he turned his life around.
Knight (pictured with Mason) has admitted to acts of self-sabotage during his career, but he has bounced back in a big way
The Aussie now calls Hull FC home. He won a new contract with the English club after making the move earlier this year
‘I still go to AA meetings twice a week,’ he said in February 2023.
‘I get up the front and say “I’m Liam I’m an alcoholic.” People can judge me any way they want. It doesn’t faze me.’
Knight joined the Bulldogs from 2023 to 2024, and was with them when his romance with Mason became official in July 2024, just months after the Channel Nine sports presenter ditched her ex-fiance Todd Liubinskas.
While his time with the Dogs didn’t go as planned – he played just seven matches for the club – he went on to win a contract with Hull FC in Britain’s Super League competition, with the club extending his deal this year despite Knight suffering a season-ending injury.
While he’s separated from Mason, the couple catch up often, and he isn’t shy about showing his feelings for her.
In a social media message earlier this year, Knight posted a number of images featuring the couple travelling abroad together.
‘Happy birthday to my best friend,’ the front-rower posted.
‘I love doing life with you. Many more adventures to come.’
