Former State of Origin centre Dane Nielsen has been stood down by St George Illawarra due to his involvement in an incident in Cronulla.

Sharks star Ben Barba was present at the Sunday night fracas but Cronulla management are satisfied he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and attempting to extricate his childhood mate from trouble.

Nielsen was dropped from coach Paul McGregor’s Dragons’ side for Saturday’s win over Canberra, but was out with several Dragons teammates on Sunday night celebrating their opening win of the season.

The 29-year-old and Barba are good mates from their time growing up in Mackay.

The Dragons are investigating the incident and the NRL integrity unit has been notified.

The Dragons released a statement saying Nielsen had not been named in any side for this weekend after a code of conduct breach.

“Dane Nielsen has not been named in any team this week due to a breach of the club’s code of conduct and the NRL Integrity Unit has been informed,” the club said in the statement.

The Dragons’ statement did not specify the nature of the breach.

After an unhappy two seasons with the Warriors after a move from Melbourne, Nielsen joined the Dragons this year.

The former Queensland centre played in the Dragons’ opening two games before being dropped for last weekend’s win over Canberra.

Barba was suspended on Tuesday by the match review committee for two matches over two separate tackles in the Sharks’ Saturday night loss to Melbourne.