The Sunderland center-half was arrested and questioned by the police over a reported rape case on Tuesday, before he was released on bail a couple of days later.

Chairman Niall Quinn defended 29-year-old Bramble while Bruce blamed the former Wigan Athletic man for hanging out four days ahead of the Black Cats' Premiership match at Liverpool.

"I don't think they should be out on a Tuesday before a Saturday game," he said.

"No one likes a night out more than me but I don't think they should be in that position, and we have spoken about that to Titus and he is in agreement that he has put himself in that situation on Tuesday and it is not appropriate.

"Footballers now do need to be more responsible, they need to start behaving themselves. They need to stop this culture that we've seen of having nights out, and nights out leading to other things they get up to. We've got to stop that.

"When one of your players gets into a situation like this, I do take it personally. It's the reputation of the football club and when you're the manager you hold that responsibility.

"With their personal lives, you can only steer them and help them and try to advise them. That's what we'll still aim to do, but it's never easy."