Parramatta's de facto chief, Ian Schubert, has stepped in to quash any plans for the club to allow Semi Radradra to play French rugby while still contracted to the Eels as uncertainly continues about whether the winger will return from Fiji to rejoin Brad Arthur's team.
Radradra remains on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu, visiting his family, having been granted leave during a bye round and there are concerns at Parramatta about whether he will be back after telling friends he did not intend to return.
With the 24-year-old linked with a move to Bordeaux in French rugby's Top 14 competition, officials at the Eels had privately discussed a possible compromise permitting Radradra to play in Europe from this August to next April if he agreed to a new three-year contract at Parramatta.
However, Schubert on Sunday ruled that out. "It's not in the best interests of the game to have players running off," said Schubert, who has been a consultant at the strife-torn Eels but in the absence of a full-time CEO is taking charge.
"That's happened in the past and it's been dealt with by the NRL. We wouldn't be looking to do anything that isn't fully supported by the NRL.
"The rules do not facilitate players ducking off in the middle of their contract to go off and do other things and that definitely wouldn't be in the best interests of our club or rugby league as a whole."
The NRL has strong reservations about a contracted player topping up his income in another code, believing such a scenario would effectively be another way around the salary cap and would be a dangerous precedent to set.
There are several issues at play in Radradra's weekend departure, which has been compared to the dramatic exit from Canterbury of Sonny Bill Williams in 2008. His father, Samisoni Waqavatu, is unwell with a lung condition but there are also other personal issues in the winger's life in Sydney. There is also the lure of a potentially rich contract in French rugby, which could pocket him significantly more than the four-year deal, valued at about $325,000 a season including a $75,000 annual third-party agreement, that he signed in 2014.
The silence of the manager, George Christodoulou, since Saturday night, when Channel Nine reported Radradra's walk-out, only enhanced belief that he would not be returning.
As far as the Eels are concerned, though, he is due back on Sunday ahead of their next game against Cronulla on July 2 and was expected to be joined by his father.
"The reality is he knows he's contracted to us until the end of next season," Schubert said.
"We had a meeting with George on Thursday ... and Semi and George and the coach [Arthur] met after that meeting. We're comfortable that the coach has a good relationship with Semi. There are offers coming in for players of his calibre every day of the week ... French rugby, Super League Europe ... he's a wonderful athlete. All those sort of things can play with your mind when you've been through the turmoil that our club has been through recently.
"We would be ultimately surprised given the conversations we had last week if there was anything different to that effect.
"We've all got things going on in our lives that tend to try and de-focus us and de-rail us but you don't become a professional athlete as quality as he is without having a clear mind and a single focus."
If a Radradra walkout does eventuate it would come less than two months after he made his debut for Australia, having been controversially allowed to switch allegiances from Fiji to Australia on residency grounds. Australian chairman of selectors John Grant said he would have no regrets about Radradra being picked.
"As the Kangaroos [selectors] you always pick from the players who are eligible to play," Grant said.
Radradra would have to be released by Parramatta to relocate to Europe Williams ultimately paid $750,000 to Canterbury to break a five-year deal with the Bulldogs. And while Top 14 clubs are only becoming richer after the signing last month of a four-year 388m ($A592m) local television deal there are now powers for teams there to be fined if they have too many foreigners in their squad.
The French competition's rules, introduced two years after Williams joined Toulon, demand that 55 per cent of a club's entire squad is either born in France or has been licensed to play there for five years before the age of 23 and that match-day squads have at least 12 such players.
