NZ Warriors prop Kane Evans has been hit with a $5000 fine for writing an explicit message on his strapping on Sunday.
During the loss to Penrith Panthers in Brisbane, Evans - the team's 18th man - was captured by the broadcast team on the bench, where the 'Fold some c***' message on his wrist could be clearly read.
On Wednesday, coach Nathan Brown confirmed the had been sanctioned and no further punishment would be handed down by the club.
"Kane is a good lad," says Brown. "He's only been with us short term and he's very popular amongst the boys and is a terrific bloke.
"But good people do some silly things sometimes and on this occasion Kane has done something that as a club we feel is a little bit silly.
"We don’t need to sanction Kane, the NRL has already sanctioned it, they’ve given him a $5000 fine, so it was an expensive little piece of writing."
Brown has also announced the surprise return of centre Peta Hiku to the playing squad.
Hiku hasn't featured since April, when he suffered a shoulder injury against St George Dragons that was expected to sideline him for the rest of the season.
Brown believes he could play as soon as next week against Wests Tigers, while half Chanel Harris-Tavita is also making similarly fast progress with his recovery from an ankle injury.
"I reckon Peta is a fairly strong chance for next week, from what I’m hearing and if not next week then definitely the week after," Brown says
"Chanel is starting to get into that timeline as well. So over the next couple of weeks we can see a bit of a trickle back form Chanel and Peta."
Brown paid tribute to Hiku's willingness to return for the Warriors rather than take the extra time to heal, before he joins North Queensland Cowboys next season.
"With losing Peta to a different club, at different times, different players feel they’ll just take the easy route out," notes Brown.
"But Peta has knuckled down and probably worked harder than he’s worked in the past.
"Now he’s got himself into a position where he can play in the back part of the year and it was a pretty nasty injury he had. But it shows that if you make the right sacrifices and and put the right effort in, you can shave some time off.
On Saturday, the Warriors will try to snap their six-game losing skid with victory over the South Sydney Rabbitohs on the Sunshine Coast, who have won five straight matches.
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