Melbourne Storm prop Brett White is free to play in Sunday’s NRL grand final after being cleared of elbowing Cronulla’s Ben Ross during last weekend’s preliminary final.

White was put on report for the incident, and faced the prospect of missing the grand final against Manly if charged.

But the Storm confirmed today the NRL had found White had no case to answer and would be free to play.

Immediately after being cleared, White also took the extraordinary step of denying claims of an off-field rift with Ross that has contributed to their on-field fireworks this season.

White and Ross were once St George Illawarra teammates and were rumoured to have fallen out over a female.

White copped a four-week ban for punching Ross earlier this season, and the pair were embroiled again in the Storm’s 28-0 preliminary final shutout of the Sharks.

“There’s been a lot of rumours been going around about off-field incidents going on between Ben Ross and I just want to clear that up,” White said today.

“We’ve never lived together, we’ve never had a run-in off the field, there’s never been any drama. I want to squash that here now.

“I had faith they (the match review panel) would see the incident for what it was – that there was no malicious intent.”