Australian Olympic hockey player Tom Craig has been barred from attending the closing ceremony after being arrested and spending a night in a Paris police station for allegedly trying to buy cocaine on the streets of the French capital.

Craig faces further sanctions from Hockey Australia, which is set to commence a disciplinary procedure into the incident that occurred when Craig was out in Paris with other members of his Kookaburras team.

Craig, an experienced member of the team, was released on Wednesday evening with a warning but no fine or record.

Hockey Australia high performance director Bernard Strange said the other players were not aware of Craig’s decision. “It is our understanding that Tom was acting alone, and the only events that brought the players or him to the players attention was him indeed being arrested.”

Chef de mission Anna Meares said the group of players saw Craig being arrested and followed him to the police station. “They heard the commotion, went out and saw that Tom had been arrested. They spoke with police officers, the arresting officers, were able to follow to the police station concerned for Tom’s welfare, and from there, they reached out to Tom’s family who reached out to our lawyers.”

The evening out followed a family and friends event at a hotel in Montmartre to mark the end of the Olympic campaigns of the Hockeyroos and Kookaburras, who both were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Paris Games.

Craig wasn’t released until Wednesday evening. Meares said his release followed the ordinary criminal process, and rejected the notion that his time in custody was unusually long.

She declined to name the other players, saying it wouldn’t be “fair”. “Athletes are very welcome, and they should be able to go out and celebrate, that’s not an un-normal thing,” she said. “It’s the simple actions and the decision here for Tom [that is the problem], and he’s owned up to that.”

Craig addressed the media upon his release. “Firstly I would like to apologise for what has occurred over the last 24 hours,” he said in a brief statement outside the police station. “I made a terrible mistake, and I take full responsibility for my actions.

“My actions are my own, and by no way reflect the values of my family, my teammates, my friends, my sport, and the Australian Olympic team. I’ve embarrassed you all and I’m truly sorry.”

The Paris public prosecutors office told Guardian Australia that police officers had witnessed a cocaine transaction in the ninth arrondissement of the city on Tuesday night, and arrested two men.

“Police officers … arrested the seller, born in December 2006, and the buyer, born in September 1995 in Australia and said to be a member of the Australian field hockey team,” a spokesperson said.

“In view of the quantities of narcotics seized from the seller, the investigations were entrusted to the narcotics brigade. Both people are in police custody.”

Craig was playing at his second Olympic Games after winning a silver medal at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

The episode comes at the end of a disappointing Olympic campaign for both Australia’s hockey teams.

The Kookaburras lost 2-0 to Netherlands in their quarter-final on Sunday, after the men’s team came into the tournament with medal aspirations, while the Hockeyroos, the women’s team, went down to China 3-2 on Monday.

Under the rules in place for the Olympic Village in Tokyo, players were required to vacate their rooms within 48 hours of the completion of their competition.

Meares said she has issued a warning to all sports in the wake of the incident. “I actually sent out a message to all of our sports reminding them that no one is immune to making bad decisions and to getting into trouble, reminding them to please reach out to us if anything does occur, so that we can help them, but to also understand that not only their reputation, but the reputation of their sports and this Australian Olympic team, is at stake as well.”