The East Maitland junior has expressed his desire to stay at home in the Hunter but since declining an initial extension from the last-placed Knights in pre-season both NRL leaders Cronulla and Parramatta have also chased his signature.  

Only 10 weeks remain in 2016 and Rochow has yet to put a time frame on announcing a final decision about his future, instead holding on for what Newcastle can put on the table.  

“I don’t think it’s a matter of a number of games, it’s a matter of once I get an offer from the club [Knights] and making a decision from there,” Rochow said. “I don’t think I can make a decision until that’s the case, so I just have to wait at this stage … It’s is my home here and I don’t want to leave, hopefully we can sort that out over the next month or two.”

The 25-year-old forward returned to the field on the weekend following an 11-round lay-off with a broken arm and looks likely to back up against the Raiders in Canberra on Sunday as the Knights attempt to snap a nine-game losing streak.

Now the 2014 NSW Country Origin representative is back in the middle Rochow’s player agent Allan Gainey said he would touch base with the Knights shortly but confirmed pursuits from the Sharks and Eels.

“We wanted to get that first game out of the way,” Gainey said. “We will probably contact [Newcastle football manager] Darren Mooney at the Knights during the next few weeks to discuss the situation … but there have been a few other clubs sniffing around.”

Mooney said there were “no further updates”.

Rochow has played just 10 matches the last two injury-plagued seasons after back surgery hindered him in 2015 and a training incident re-fractured his arm after round five this year.   

But with the departure of Tariq Sims to the Dragons earlier this month and the retirement of Jeremy Smith at year’s end, Rochow remains one of the most experienced campaigners in an otherwise young forward pack and he wants to be part of the rebuilding phase at the club.

“If we have the right players and start getting better every week and compete really hard, I want to be apart of that,” he said. “I want to be proud to put on the jumper with the players I run out with. It’s a tough position and tough times, but at the end of the day we just need a group of players that want to get better each week and keep competing.”

Meanwhile, Jacob Saifiti will be available for selection after the Knights forward took an early guilty plea for a grade one dangerous contact charge in Saturday’s 30-18 loss to St George Illawarra at Hunter Stadium.