Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade is refusing to "jump at shadows" after explosive claims of illicit drug use made by Karmichael Hunt were made public on Sunday.
Just hours before the Suns took the field against Carlton for their 100th AFL match, the club announced that they would launch an investigation into allegations of cocaine use made by Hunt during his time at the club that were published by NewsCorp Australia outlets on Sunday morning.
An injury-depleted Gold Coast side suffered a 34-point defeat at the hands of the Blues - Eade said he had not raised the issue with his players before the game and was unsure if it had played any part in their performance.
He said that he would leave the investigation to club chief executive Andrew Travis and the AFL, and would continue to go about his task of trying to move the besieged club off the bottom of the ladder.
"We'll wait until we get facts - there's going to be an investigation and there's no sense jumping at shadows," Eade said.
"There hasn't been any facts presented previously, there's no facts at the moment (but) there's been a fair amount of mud slung.
"It's interesting that the story would come out on the day that we play our 100th game. Our intel says that they probably knew the story a few weeks ago, so it's interesting that it comes out now.
"You can read into that what you like."
There was, at least, some good news on a dark day for the club, with skipper Gary Ablett declaring he would almost certainly return from his much-discussed shoulder injury next week against North Melbourne.
Ablett said that the club's medical staff had ruled him out of the clash with the Blues, which was expected to mark his return from the injury that has kept him out since round two.
"There was talk in the paper that it was my decision whether I would be out there but that wasn't the case at all," Ablett told 3AW.
"I sat down with the medical staff and they said the right decision would be to give the shoulder another week of contact work. If it holds up to that then I'm very confident I'll be out there."
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