Collingwood star Harry O'Brien's immediate playing future is uncertain after he revealed he is suffering serious personal problems and left training early on Tuesday morning.
The AFL All-Australian had his arms around club president Eddie McGuire as he left the training ground.
Earlier O'Brien told reporters he was dealing with "demons he was starting to face", including depression and a history of sexual abuse.
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said O'Brien was no longer part of the team leadership group and could not say when he would play again.
"I'm going through issues that I sort of put in the past for a long time, including a long and very complicated history of sexual abuse," O'Brien said.
"Suicide, depression, seeing someone get murdered, knowing who'd murdered that person and not being able to say anything because that person would probably murder you."
Two years ago O'Brien witnessed a murder in Brazil, where he was born, and someone he knew committed suicide four years ago.
O'Brien asked to be treated with sensitivity.
"When the time comes I will open up about these issues, but this is my personal experience and I have to do this in the public eye, and it's really tough," he told reporters.
"And if you guys can give me a bit of space because I'm going through some real stuff here, real stuff."
O'Brien had an argument with Buckley during last week. He did not play in Friday night's win over Carlton and was given the weekend off.
O'Brien had asked the club not to disclose his personal issues when he was left out of the team, ostensibly because of injury.
"Harry wasn't keen for his personal issues to be used as a reason for his omission," Buckley said.
"So we followed his wishes. He does have a floating bone in his ankle, by the way."
Buckley said he did not go to Port Douglas for the weekend, as had been widely reported.
O'Brien later tweeted his thanks to friend Scott Dooley for his support on the weekend.
"Shout out to my man @scottdools for doing a great job of hiding me in Sydney. Love you brother!!"
Buckley said the decision was made to take O'Brien out of the leadership group for the rest of the year after the pair spoke on Monday.
"At the moment, it's pretty clear from a welfare perspective that Harry needs to have that focus on himself and getting himself in good shape, physically and mentally," Buckley said.
"Footy is probably the last thing he needs to think about right now.
"He has been through some things that I couldn't imagine what that feels like.
"We want to give him the chance to get back and do what he does best."
* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 and MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78.
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