A legal storm is brewing after NRL superstar Nathan Cleary’s image was used for an advertising flyer that was circulated around a Homebush car park during Wednesday night’s State of Origin battle.

The flyer used a crude digitally altered image of Cleary with his arm around a woman. Adding to the controversy, the woman is obviously not his high-profile partner, Matildas superstar Mary Fowler.

The words on the flyer — that is seemingly selling NRL car bonnet covers — said, “Way to go Blues! I knew this one had rizz! I’m taking this one home!”

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It then noted: “This flyer was printed a week ago.”

With an incorrect sponsor on Cleary’s jersey, the ad would appear to be AI generated.

And Cleary’s lawyers are not happy, saying police could get involved.

“It’s a disgrace what they’re doing with these guys’ brands,” lawyer Daniel McGirr told the SMH.

“There’s a couple of avenues that will go down the track of. One of them is civilly, but they are also obtaining a benefit by deception, which is criminal. We don’t know who is affiliated with these brands – or whether they are real brands to start with.

“They might be scams. Say the punter on the street thinks, ‘Nathan Cleary is aligned to this, I trust him and he’s my hero.’ They click on it, and they could be taken to some dark web or something like that and get scammed. It’s a criminal matter. With AI, this will get worse and worse until something is done about it.”

AI generated advertisements illegally using the faces of famous people are increasingly becoming a concern.

Apart from the stars not getting a fee to endorse a product, the ads can often be scams, particularly online.

“There’s a bigger story here about protecting the players as well,” McGirr said.

“Something needs to be done from an NRL perspective, because the NRL merchandising section should be the most concerned.”

A sportswear company has also recently used Cleary’s image illegally, sparking a fiery letter to the manufacturer from the Penrith champ’s manager in June this year, demanding that the stock be destroyed.

“You have no approval or authorisation by our Talent to use their name, image, likeness, or indeed any of their intellectual property (original or otherwise), for commercial gain,” George Mimis’s letter said.

“Not only was there no consent, but our Talent had no knowledge at all that their images were being used.”

NRL legends Darren Lockyer and Billy Slater were also illegally used in that company’s promotion of its merchandise.