PORT Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas has addressed the apparent release of a series of text messages allegedly involving one of the club's players.
Speaking on Thursday, Thomas said the club was yet to ascertain the authenticity of the text messages, but said it had discussed the issue with the AFL.
"We're certainly aware of the commentary that's going on," Thomas said.
"We're aware that it appears to be private content that has found its way into the public arena, which makes it really inappropriate for me to be making any comment on it.
"We don't know any more about the authenticity of this content than anyone else, so that's our position at the moment.
"It's been around for a few days. We saw it, we've been following it, we made the AFL aware of it. They were already aware of it. It hasn't gone any further than that."
Thomas refused to speculate on the validity of the texts, expressing concern for the other people identified in the messages.
"I haven't spoken to the player," Thomas said.
"It's private content that has potentially been inappropriately placed in the public domain.
"There are people named within it, so I imagine that could be quite embarrassing for them, so I don't want to be fuelling any further speculation about it.
"We haven't had any conversations at all with our players. We don't know about the authenticity of the content or its origins or anything like that, so there's not much more that we can do."
Thomas said he imagines the issue will be put in the hands of the AFL's integrity unit.
The AFL declined to comment.