"On the May 14th edition of SEN Sports Day I accused field umpires who were officiating that round nine match between Fremantle and Collingwood of misleading the AFL and that they had not seen the incident in which Collingwood's Lachie Schultz suffered a concussion," he said in a statement.

"I made some of those comments having seen two initial statements made by the AFL with regards to the matter on Friday May 9th and then also on Tuesday May the 13th, and further comments after seeing the additional statement made by the AFL.

"I acknowledge that the allegations made by me on this show were false and I withdraw them. I understand the umpires truthfully told the AFL that they saw the incident and did not mislead the AFL.

"I unreservedly apologise to Simon Meredith, Craig Fleer, Justin Power and Martin Roger for making these false allegations."

It's expected that Cornes, Hodge and Thomas will also address the matter on Seven.

Earlier in the week, umpires association boss Rob Kerr explained why the four men at the centre of the situation were unhappy with comments from Cornes and company.

"The umpires involved in the Fremantle vs Collingwood game have been advised as to their legal rights in relation to some of the commentary that followed the Lachlan Schultz concussion issue," he said in a statement to 9News Melbourne.

"Being falsely accused of lying and misleading the AFL goes beyond simply questioning the management of the actual incident. Commentary that casts aspersions...

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