Craig Bellamy will be the first casualty of a summer clear-out at Liverpool after the striker’s controversial career took another turn for the worse during a drunken night at the club’s training camp in Portugal.

Rafael Benitez was forced to issue a statement condemning the behaviour of his players when word reached an incandescent George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks, the American sports tycoons who bought Liverpool in a £470 million takeover earlier this month.

Although the manager was already giving consideration to offloading Bellamy and a number of other players, the Wales forward’s latest brush with authority has effectively sealed his fate.

The trouble is alleged to have begun in the early hours of Friday in a bar close to the team’s hotel in the plush Algarve resort of Vale Do Lobo, where Liverpool had spent the week training in preparation for the first leg of their Champions League first knockout round tie away to Barcelona on Wednesday. Bellamy is said to have got involved in a drunken exchange with John Arne Riise, his teammate, over karaoke that resulted in him hitting the defender around the legs with a golf club.

Riise, who apparently was not drinking, was said to be unhurt. Other players, including Jerzy Dudek, Jermaine Pennant and Robbie Fowler, were also accused of being drunk and rowdy.

Steven Gerrard, the captain, and Peter Crouch are believed to have attempted to defuse the situation, but police were called and while no one was arrested or charged, one player – understood to be Dudek, the goalkeeper – is reported to have been momentarily placed in handcuffs before being released.

Although everyone trained the next morning and again yesterday, with the club putting on a united front and insisting that there were no divisions in the camp, BenÍtez – who was woken from his hotel room to deal with the matter – is understood to be furious that the players could behave in such a manner on the eve of arguably their biggest game of the season.

Having listened all week to talk of dissent in the Barcelona camp, the Liverpool manager is concerned that news of the rumpus could play into the Spanish team’s hands. Neither has word of the fracas been well received in the United States, with Gillett and Hicks thought to be dismayed about the adverse publicity and keen for action to be taken.

In a strongly worded statement issued yesterday, BenÍtez said that all those players deemed to have been involved will be fined, although a financial penalty is probably the least of Bellamy’s concerns.

While Dudek and Fowler were always going to be leaving the club at the end of the season – BenÍtez has already found a replacement for Fowler in Andriy Voronin, the Bayer Leverkusen and Ukraine striker, who has agreed in principle to a four-year deal that will commence in July – Bellamy’s future did at least appear his to decide.

Having warned the Wales striker about his behaviour when he signed for the club last June, the manager is said to feel “let down” by his actions. In December, the striker, who had a very public falling-out with Graeme Souness, the manager, when he was at Newcastle United, was acquitted of assaulting a woman in a Cardiff bar in December.

BenÍtez said: “I met this morning with the entire first-team squad and made it absolutely clear to all of them the responsibilities that come with playing for this club and the way they are expected to conduct themselves both on and off the pitch.

“The players worked extremely hard at last week’s training camp, but we will take disciplinary action and fine any of them who are found to have breached club rules during our stay in Portugal.

“Despite reports to the contrary, the spirit among the lads is very good with everyone looking forward to the game against Barcelona on Wednesday. We remain totally focused on what will be a tough game against the defending European champions.”