Controversial Wallaby rugby player Quade Cooper was one of the three high profile sportsmen involved in a car crash on Friday in Melbourne. Reds flyhalf Cooper was with Melbourne Rebels players Danny Cipriani and Kurtley Beale when they crashed into a parked car coming around a bend. No-one was hurt fortunately, but this is the second time Cooper’s been in the news in the last month – and it’s not for his rugby.

Cooper, who is still recuperating from a knee injury sustained while playing for Australia last year during the Rugby World Cup, got into a spot of trouble in January as well. He was allegedly involved in an ‘altercation’ with a man in a Melbourne pub and was evicted from the institution.

Cooper was visiting Melbourne again last weekend, and it’s believed the car he was travelling in with Cipriani and Beale did not take the bend in time, causing the trio to career over a bush and into another stationary vehicle. They were on their way back to Cipriani’s house.

Reds CEO Jim Carmichael has defended Cooper and is not pointing any fingers, saying, “Until Quade Cooper does something that isn’t right, I take the view that they are … still young men who go out”.