Unsettled Collingwood defender Harry O’Brien is not a destabilising influence at the AFL club, says Magpies president Eddie McGuire.
O’Brien’s immediate future is unclear after a disagreement at a team meeting and speculation it has caused a rift with coach Nathan Buckley.
O’Brien spent the weekend in Port Douglas with the club’s permission.
The club says O’Brien also has an ankle injury, which led to him being ruled out of Friday night’s win over Carlton.
Buckley has not denied the speculation surrounding a disagreement with the 26-year-old, and would not say definitely when O’Brien would be back at Collingwood.
But McGuire says O’Brien, who has been vocal on a range of social issues and had a run-in with his president over his now-infamous King Kong radio gaffe, will be given the time away from the club he needs.
“You don’t put ultimatums to anybody,” McGuire told Melbourne radio station Triple M.
“Everybody has had a couple of days break to just chill out and have a bit of a think about things, and you come back together.
“These are people who genuinely like each other, respect each other, work together (and) have got a common goal.”
O’Brien had taken public exception with McGuire’s on-air slip-up in May in which he suggested Sydney’s indigenous star Adam Goodes should help promote the musical King Kong.
Days earlier, Goodes had been abused during a match by a teenager who called him an ape.
O’Brien did not appear at Collingwood’s Monday morning training session.