The Gold Coast Suns have condemned the circulation of an online rumour about veteran midfielder Brandon Ellis, labelling it as "false" and "vicious" in two separate social media posts.
After Ellis became the subject of a rumour on Tuesday, which spread across various social media platforms and forums, the Suns were quick to quash and disprove the rumour on Twitter.
"The claims that have been made on social media today are completely false, a vicious rumour and should not be spread. Brandon was at training today, will be at training tomorrow and will play this weekend," Gold Coast said in a response to previous comments.
Journalists Jon Ralph and Ryan Daniels also criticised the rumour and its circulation in separate tweets following Gold Coast's response.
"Don't get sucked into stupid and totally false rumours about players just because someone has put them in your WhatsApp group from a screenshot," Ralph wrote on Twitter.
"The rumours today surrounding @GoldCoastSUNS player Brandon Ellis on social media are completely false," Daniels said.
"Ellis trained today, even spoke with media this morning.
"Why do people make this stuff up? Bizarre."
As stated by the club, Ellis will feature for the Suns this weekend as they face the Western Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon fresh off a remarkable victory against Fremantle last weekend.