Leeds have sprung to the defence of full-back Zak Hardaker, suggesting he may be the victim of a witch-hunt over further allegations of homophobic abuse.

The 22-year-old England international served a five-match ban earlier this year after being found guilty of making homophobic comments to referee James Child during Leeds’ Super League game at Warrington, and now the Rugby Football League is investigating claims that he made an abusive comment during last Friday’s home defeat by St Helens.

Hardaker was shown on television mouthing a comment to Saints forward Mark Flanagan, which was apparently heard by match referee Richard Silverwood, and Leeds say the RFL has employed the services of a lip reader to aid their investigation.

The Rhinos stood by their player following his ban in June and on Wednesday called for an external investigation into the actions of the governing body and its officials into their “vigorous” pursuit of the alleged incident.

“We are concerned there appears to be a witch-hunt by the RFL towards Zak Hardaker and we are calling for an external investigation into the issues surrounding the investigation,” Leeds chief executive Gary Hetherington said.

“We know the match commissioner was asked by the media at the post-match press conference if the referee had reported any incident or comment and they were told ‘no’.

“We want to know why the referee’s report quite mysteriously now contains a reference to a possible comment.”

Hetherington said that while the investigation was conducted the club would continue to support Hardaker.