Wests Tigers NRL five-eighth Benji Marshall says he will have to be on guard when he steps out in public in the future after getting knocked down in a pub brawl in Coffs Harbour.

The injured Tigers playmaker, who is recovering from a fractured cheekbone suffered in last Friday's 24-15 win over St George Illawarra, said a man tried to attack him at the Greenhouse Tavern on the NSW North Coast early Tuesday morning.

Marshall said the incident had changed his views on going out in the future.

"I don't want to have the change the way I go out with the boys, but I think I might have to," Marshall told Channel Nine.

"I've just come to a realisation that there's people out there that want to try and tarnish your reputation and try and start fights with you."

Tigers chief executive Steve Noyce said it was becoming tougher for the likes of Marshall to go out in public, but denied the club would place any restrictions on the talented 21-year-old's social life.

"If he would have said to the people 'I won't come back to the presentation' then people would accuse NRL players of being aloof," Noyce said.

"You can't let a minority spoil it and anyone who's had anything to do with Benji knows he's a very good role model.

"Recently he went to watch his brother play in the games before this particular one (in Wollongong) and I got five or six emails from people who weren't particularly rugby league people saying what a great ambassador for the game and the club he was."

Marshall said the media coverage was blown out of proportion.

"I was going up there to support my brother and watch a bit of touch, it didn't turn out the way it (was) exactly planned, also its been blown out of proportion a bit and been told a bit untrue," he told Macquarie Radio.

"That's the thing, I read in the paper, that I was punched in the head and knocked to the ground. I don't really see it as a big incident, because nothing really happened to me, I wasn't hurt or nothing ... in five or six seconds it was over."

In fact Marshall, who will miss up to six weeks with his facial injury, was surprised the incident ever became a public issue.

"He was quite surprised when I rang him about it actually, he was driving home with his mate last night," Noyce said.

"He just left after the incident, and was then surprised when I rang being concerned about it."

Marshall said he was initially concerned for his tender cheekbone when approached by the man, who was the brother of a girl who had been evicted by the club's security staff earlier in the evening.

Marshall said he had been talking to the girl earlier that night, and said the brother must have thought he was the reason she was thrown out.

"Naturally I was worried about my cheekbone so I tried to cover that up," Marshall told Channel Nine.

"The guy probably threw five or six punches and none of them really hit me, I definitely wasn't knocked out."

Noyce said Marshall had gone to Coffs Harbour with the club's blessing.

"He went to watch his brother play touch footy up at Coffs Harbour and was invited back to their official function. He wanted to do the right thing, so he went back there," Noyce said.

"A guy threw a punch at him or something and Benji tells me he wasn't hit, he wasn't hurt."

Noyce said he had contacted the NRL to say the club had concluded its investigations and would not be taking any further action.

NRL chief executive David Gallop, who was in Adelaide on Wednesday promoting the round six clash between Penrith and Melbourne in the City of Churches, said he would wait until he had received a formal report from Tigers before making a statement.

Meanwhile, the NRL has conducted a special presentation at the Bulldogs' Belmore Oval training base promoting Friday night's Harmony Day game between the Bulldogs and Wests Tigers.

The NRL is using the game to pay tribute to the 73 different countries represented by first or second generation players in the NRL and its feeder competitions.

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