'Untruthful': NRL takes shock action against Nathan Cleary and teammate

Penrith star Nathan Cleary is facing a two-match ban and a $30,000 fine for being 'untruthful' in dealings with the NRL's integrity unit during investigations into social distancing breaches.

Fellow Panthers player Tyrone May, who lives with Cleary, has also been issued a breach notice and is facing a $15,000 fine and two-match suspension over the same incident.

'WAKE UP': Footy star slams ScoMo over 'coercive' comments

‘PHYSICALLY ILL’: Erin Molan rocked by devastating tragedy

The bans are set to start when the NRL competition resumes on May 28.

It comes after Cleary was caught trying to cover up the extent of a social distancing breach when a contradictory TikTok video was released on social media.

The 22-year-old was originally stung with a $10,000 fine with 60 per cent suspended, as well as a suspended one-match ban when pictures emerged of him with women on his couch at home in April.

He was not fined by NSW Police, however, all five women were.

At the time he said the women were at his house for around 10 minutes while they waited for an Uber.

However, the NRL will allege Cleary lied to the integrity unit about the amount of time the women were in his house, evidenced by two TikTok videos that were discovered soon after.

May is alleged to have been untruthful in his dealings with the NRL integrity unit over the same incident.

The 23-year-old is already serving a four-match suspension after he was convicted of filming four sex tapes without the consent of the women involved.

He was also fined 25 per cent of his NRL salary.

May was sidelined for the entire 2019 season while he faced the charges.

Should the NRL proceed with the latest suspensions, May will not be able to return to the field for the Panthers until round seven.

Both May and Cleary will have five days to respond to the breach notices before a final determination is made.

Nathan Cleary remorseful over scandal

Penrith teammate James Tamou said Cleary has been a quiet, withdrawn figure on return to Panthers training.

The actions were widely condemned and Tamou said the halfback was visibly affected in a training environment which he otherwise described as vibrant, with players happy to be back working together.

“Obviously he's pretty quiet, he's just very remorseful for what he's done,” Tamou said.

“He's trying to do his best just to put his head down and do his work.

“Obviously the NRL is still handling all that stuff and I wouldn't know what to say until it's all done and finished.”

Tamou's initial thought when the headlines appeared was that Cleary had been set up.

“Seeing the picture, I first thought ‘that's not Nathan, something's up’,” he said.

“He's not that out-there, he's more introverted than anything. But he knows he's made a mistake and he's willing to cop it.”