The former Australia international Todd Carney is suing his old National Rugby League club Cronulla for $3 million, in what he calls a bid to protect fellow players.
Carney was sacked by Cronulla in June last year after a lewd photo purporting to show him urinating in his own mouth emerged online.
Carney is now claiming unfair dismissal.
Former Cronulla playmaker Todd Carney. Photo: Photosport
Earlier in the year he won a claim before the NRL Appeals Committee, after he argued they denied him a chance to plead his case before the club board.
The former New South Wales State of Origin halfback said he learned of his sacking from team-mate Wade Graham before being given the chance to give his side of the story.
"I feel I was harshly done by. Some people don't," Carney told the Nine Network," he said.
"I want it to be cleaned up because I think one day the club might think back to what's happened to me and it might help another player."
Carney resumed his playing career in France with Super League club Catalans and last month signed a three-year contract extension.
However he did not rule out a return to Australia, saying he still got goosebumps watching the game.
Before being sacked by Cronulla, he had previously been sacked by the Canberra Raiders and Sydney Roosters for alcohol-related issues.
Carney was axed by the Raiders in 2008 after being accused of urinating on a patron in a nightclub while he was let go by the Roosters for breaching an alcohol ban in 2011, the year after guiding them to the Premiership and winning the Dally M.
While he has a chequered past, his lawyer Julieanne Levick said Cronulla had not followed due process by allowing him a hearing.
"If they had acted reasonably in the first instance we wouldn't be here now. It would have been settled," she said.
- AAP
