“We definitely haven’t taken steps back.”

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The Rugby League Players’ Association have been made aware of the wrestling incident, which has emerged in the same week the Bulldogs finish their season against the Titans on the Gold Coast.

Speaking on the Six Tackles with Gus podcast, Gould said the “sensitivity of the matter and the protection of the player” was paramount. However, he denied that the player in question or any teammate had ever abandoned the club.

“It hasn’t happened, no one’s walked out anywhere,” Gould said. “Has there been a group of players approach the club dissatisfied with culture or other matters? No, that hasn’t happened, never at any time …

“But we’re strongly in support of the standards that we’re trying to enforce at the club and the culture that we’re trying to create and turning around what’s been a very poor last decade for the Bulldogs and that will take time.”

Gould said the player continued to turn up to training after the incident and only expressed his desire to take leave a week afterwards.

“My suspicion is that details of that report have been leaked out in some way, shape or form,” Gould said, before adding that things need to change at Belmore.

“We’re the worst team in the competition right now and still are and have been for some time,” Gould added. “So we need to change that and there are a lot of things that need to change for that to come true, but we’re getting there.

“We’ve got terrific coaching staff, terrific administration, terrific people working in the club now internally, it’s a very happy and productive place … But the coach and the staff of the club are certainly making no apologies for the intensity with which they train because they train them, as I’ve always said, as a top team should train.”

Asked whether he hoped the player would return to the club, or for more specifics about the training incident, Ciraldo said it was a “sensitive issue” and declined to comment but added “at different times we’ve wanted to put some standards in place and if you’re late we have to do something”.

Online speculation a number of Bulldogs players are unhappy with Ciraldo’s training demands and length of time he expects them at the club was refuted by the coach. He said his former club Penrith, where he helped Ivan Cleary to back-to-back premierships, had far greater demands on their players.

“No one has come to me and told me they’re complaining about long days,” he said. “We’ve got a [Jersey] Flegg group [under-21s] in here that do weights at five o’clock in the morning, go and work for 10 hours and come back and do field [sessions] at 5.30 in the afternoon. That’s a long day.

“The way those guys are going about their business is showing they are the future [of the] Bulldogs and that’s who we are going to build the club around.”

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Asked whether the culture was right at the Bulldogs, Ciraldo said: “We’ve been losing so clearly the culture is not exactly right.”

The Bulldogs will finish the year third from bottom regardless of their final round result. The club hasn’t made the finals since 2016.

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