Canberra Raiders rugby league officials are denying a claim that former player Steve Irwin was asked to lie to police to protect the NRL club's star playmaker Todd Carney.
Police say they are looking into a News Ltd newspaper report in which Irwin alleges he was asked to tell police Carney was not drunk when he led officers on a car chase through suburban streets last year.
Irwin, who was a passenger in the car with Carney during the chase, was sacked by the club afterwards.
Carney was sentenced to 200 hours of community service after the car chase and his decision to run from officers after abandoning the car while driving with his licence suspended.
Earlier this week he was suspended indefinitely by the club after a complaint was made to police that he urinated on a patron in a Canberra pub.
The complaint was was subsequently dropped,
