The 30-year-old was recently released from Catalans in the English Super League and is looking for a home for 2017.

But a feud with the Sharks continues to delay a return after he was famously sacked for the ‘bubbler’ incident in 2014.

"There’s no hiding the fact that I’d like to return but that’s out of my hands at the moment," Carney told fox sports.

"Until I finish the Sharks (stuff), that’s out of my hands.

"I’ll spend Christmas with mum in Goulburn and decide after Christmas where my future is."

St George Illawarra and Melbourne are in the hot seat to secure the former NRL bad boy should the NSW Supreme Court rule he was wrongly sacked by Cronulla.