North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas has been cleared of wrongdoing over the incident which broke Sydney youngster Gary Rohan’s leg and ended his AFL season.

Thomas had risked a three-game ban by fighting a rough conduct charge at the tribunal, which was viewed as a test case over the AFL’s desire to crack down this season on players sliding into a contest for the ball knees or feet first.

After being cleared, a relieved Thomas publicly apologised and said he had already left a message of support for Rohan.

“I just want to apologise to Gary and wish him all the best in his recovery,” Thomas told reporters on Tuesday night.

“It wasn’t my intent. It was just a freak accident and I wish him well.”

Tribunal counsel Jeff Gleeson SC told the jury it was exactly the sort of scenario the AFL had been worried about when they warned clubs via a pre-season memo and DVD that sliding was an “emerging dangerous tactic” with the potential to cause serious injury.

“This is the very thing that the medicos were worried about, the AFL were worried about and that the players were warned about,” Gleeson said.

But Thomas, who reached the ball before Rohan, said his only aim had been to trap the ball and he had stuck out his leg to stop himself sliding on the slippery SCG, rather than to slide into Rohan.

“I wanted to trap the ball and I put my leg out to get a firm grip on the ground, unfortunately my leg collected Gary,” Thomas told the tribunal.

“I didn’t know his foot was going to be there. He didn’t know my foot was going to be there.

“I was 100 per cent committed to the football.

“It’s one of those freak accidents where mine and Gary’s legs got caught at the same place.”

The jury’s decision backed Thomas’s view, despite Gleeson arguing that the consequences of some actions were “so catastrophic” that it was a player’s duty to avoid them.

“If I might unintentionally snap someone’s lower leg by adopting a course of action, my duty to avoid adopting that course is very high,” Gleeson said.

Thomas’s let-off followed Swans star Adam Goodes being banned for the North Melbourne match over an incident in the previous round in which he slid with his knees into the leg of Port Adelaide’s Jacob Surjan.