Canterbury Bulldogs club captain Raymond Faitala-Mariner has reportedly been told to not report for training when the club returns to pre-season on Friday.
Faitala-Mariner was given permission to exit the Bulldogs mid-way through the 2023 season despite being named club captain by rookie coach Cameron Ciraldo ahead of the 2023 campaign.
That had followed his inspirational return from injury, where his career nearly came to an end.
2023 was a difficult season for the forward though, with Faitala-Mariner spending a chunk of the campaign in hospital as illness developed into pneumonia.
When he did play, he was often taken out of his usual edge forward role and placed in the middle where he struggled to have any real impact.
News Corp is now reporting that despite the fact Faitala-Mariner is yet to find a new club despite at one point being linked with a move to the New Zealand Warriors that was promptly shut down by director of football Phil Gould, he has been told to stay away from training.
Journalist Brent Read took to Triple M Radio on Thursday afternoon to confirm the relationship was less than amicable.
"The interesting one is tomorrow. The Bulldogs are back," Read said.
"I don't know if you remember, but their club captain Raymond Faitala-Mariner had a bit of a fallout at the end of last season with the club. He had been named club captain earlier in the year, and he was basically given permission to go and explore his options.
"He hasn't found another club as of yet Ray, so it'll be interesting to see whether he is at training tomorrow. My gut feeling is he won't be there because I'm not sure that things are all hunky dory between him and the club.
"It's a bit of a sad state of affairs given he was club captain 12 months ago."
It's a messy situation to say the least at Belmore, with Faitala-Mariner still having two years remaining on his contract.
It means he could remain with the club until the end of the 2025 season if he fails to find a new club, taking up a spot in the Top 30 and cash off the salary cap, while the Bulldogs have no plan to use him in first-grade.