Ben Barba arrested and charged with assault

Former Man of Steel Ben Barba has been arrested and charged with assaulting a man in a Mackay pub.

The Courier Mail reports that Barba allegedly punched his wife’s brother and faces charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The 30-year-old is currently banned indefinitely from playing rugby league after CCTV footage caught him in an aggressive altercation with his wife last year.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of public nuisance in May for that incident at a Townsville casino.

A former Dally M Medal winner, Barba was released by Cronulla Sharks in 2016 after receiving a 12-game recreational drugs ban just days after winning the NRL Premiership.

In May 2017, he signed for St Helens and was Super League’s stand-out player by the end of the 2018 season.

His form earned him a big-money move to the North Queensland Cowboys, but Barba failed to play a game for the club after he was deregistered by the NRL for the altercation with his wife.