His club has confirmed that he was drinking alcohol over the weekend while injured, which is a breach of his contract.
Bronwyn Herbert reports.
RUGBY LEAGUE COMMENTATOR: Carney sees a gap, Carney's over.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Todd Carney is one of rugby league's great talents.
RUGBY LEAGUE COMMENTATOR: ?got the ball to Carney. Carney's in to score. That is ruthless.
RUGBY LEAGUE COMMENTATOR 2: These two young fellows, I'm telling you, they've got their foot on the tilt of greatness.
BRONWYN HERBERT: But that tilt for greatness is in doubt. The self-confessed alcoholic, Todd Carney has admitted to his club he was out drinking over the weekend. That's a clear breach of an agreement he made with the club after the last time he got drunk and in trouble, as the Sydney Rooster's club chief executive, Steve Noyce explains.
STEVE NOYCE: Spoken to be honest with some behavioural experts to try and get as much information as I can about what motivates different types of behaviour.
It is clear that both players consumed alcohol over the course of Saturday and Sunday which one, breaches the club policy about players consuming alcohol whilst injured, and also breaches undertakings that both players had given to the club about not consuming alcohol during the 2011 season.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Todd Carney's latest troubles stem from a night out with his teammate Anthony Watts. That night ended with Watts being charged over an alleged assault on his former girlfriend.
A short time ago the Roosters' chief executive, Steve Noyce announced both players have been suspended immediately. Steve Noyce says Watts will be suspended indefinitely irrespective of the outcome of his court case and the club will seek professional medical advice before deciding on any further action against Carney.
RUGBY LEAGUE COMMENTATOR: They won't get near him. Todd Carney will race away and score.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Todd Carney's arrival at the Roosters was seen by many as a chance to redeem his career. He was sacked by his former club, the Canberra Raiders and booted out of the NRL for a series of off-field offences. He came back to win the sport's highest individual honour, the Dally M award last year.
But the sport is still suffering a hangover from a string of unsavoury incidents. From players with problems with women, gambling and alcohol-fuelled violence. The league has been trying to clean up its image, with the help of people including feminist Catherine Lumby from the University of New South Wales.
CATHERINE LUMBY: You will never rid any given sport or indeed any organisation where you've got a very large cohort particularly of young men of all instances of bad behaviour.
What you can do though is set a tone for how we do things around here, what acceptable behaviour looks like and educate young men so that it gives them an opportunity to step up to the mark. If they don't, then I think the full weight of the criminal law or of internal codes of conduct should apply.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Professor Lumby says she's pleased with the league's progress so far.
CATHERINE LUMBY: And recently what I've seen is a number of current first-grade players who've undertaken voluntarily a full week's training course in how to deliver education about ethical behaviour to younger guys and then spent six weeks working with younger guys.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Daniel Anderson is a former NRL coach and now member of the ABC Grandstand team.
DANIEL ANDERSON: I agree that there are some incidents that give the game a black eye. There's absolutely no doubt about that and I know that rugby league do their best to educate players. They are considered role models and it's a high-profile sport but I do think that there's so many good stories and so many good things that don't get covered.
MARK COLVIN: Sports commentator Daniel Anderson ending that report from Bronwyn Herbert.
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