League: Benji Marshall charged with assault

Benji Marshall. Photo / Getty Images

SYDNEY - Wests Tigers star Benji Marshall has been charged with assault following an altercation outside a fast-food outlet in Sydney's CBD in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Marshall was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm after being interviewed by detectives at North Sydney Police Station on Sunday afternoon.

Marshall is alleged to have hit a 24-year-old in retaliation to continued racial taunts outside a fast food outlet on the corner of Bridge and George Streets in Sydney just after 3am on Saturday.

After releasing a statement on Saturday afternoon confirming their knowledge of the incident, the Tigers have since been unavailable for comment on the situation.

The NRL has indicated it will await the outcome of police investigations and a full report from the Tigers before contemplating any action of its own.

Anointed the `face of the NRL' after officially launching the season, Marshall hosted a fundraiser for the Children's Cancer Institute of Australia on Friday.

His manager Martin Tauber told Sunday newspapers that Marshall had been racially abused by a group of eight to 10 people, with one of them allegedly calling him a "black c..." several times.

"One of them started to shout at him and said: `Go back to New Zealand you black c...'," Tauber told The Sunday Telegraph.

"He (Marshall) tried to walk away from him - he tried to make light of it and then the guy did it again."

The 24-year-old reportedly sustained a small facial cut and reported the incident to The Rocks police station.

- AAP