Agen's absent star Rupeni Caucaunibuca has been found receiving a dose of natural healing in his native Fiji, but remains suspended by the Top 14 club. But this episode is just the latest in the controversial career of the World's Most Frustrating Player™

Agen’s return to the Top 14 has been unsettled by the no-show of Fijian centre Rupeni Caucaunibuca. Or has it? Stade Armandie officials have suspended the club legend after he failed to show up for pre-season training on July 12, but captain and long-time colleague Adri Badenhorst has said that the squad isn’t too worried by Caucau’s absence and are carrying on without him. "There’s not much I can do, is there," he told Rugbyrama. "It’s his choice, after all.

"We’re not dependent on him, otherwise what would we do when he got injured? He’s very important because he can take win games by himself, but Agen the team is more important than individuals, and if we got too upset by the absence of one player we’d never get anything done.

"Rups is a good guy, and what’s happening at the moment is between him and the club."

The latest news on the whereabouts of the absent player comes from the Fiji Times, which reported that he was in his home village of Nasau with his wife and receiving treatment from a natural healer on a shoulder injury. He said that he would return to Agen as soon as he is able to travel, and added that he had told Agen management about the injury and that they agreed to extend his leave.

Despite his reputation as one of the most exciting players in World Rugby (and who can argue with tries like this), Caucau is used to hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons. Here’s a summary of his career controversies...

Caucau’s Tales of Trouble and Tardiness

October 2003: Is given two-match ban at his first (and still only) World Cup for punching Olivier Magne.

November 2003: Announced that he is quitting Fiji for New Zealand because they can pay him more money. Reminded by the IRB that having already played for Fiji, he is not eligible for New Zealand.

June 2005: Fails to show up for Fiji’s match with the New Zealand Maori, saying he was showing his new born daughter to family members in his village.

August 2005: Suspended for a year by the Fiji Rugby Union for boycotting a World Cup qualifier against Samoa. Caucau refused to board the team plane, claiming he had to return home to look after his wife, who was struck down by toothache.

October 2006: Misses Agen’s first 10 games of the season after returning late from his summer break in Fiji. Agen officials make a 30-hour, three-legged plane journey to his home island of Vanua Levu, followed by a four-hour drive down dirt tracks to his village. To be fair, he wasn’t well, and was hospitalised with a tropical virus which saw him lose 27lb in weight.

November 2006: A lost passport on a Heineken Cup trip to Gloucester costs Caucau his place in the Pacific Islands team to play Wales in Cardiff. Manages to find it for the Islands’ match against Scotland a week later, and scores a try on what was to be his last international appearance for four years.

March 2007: Banned for three months after testing positive for cannabis after Agen’s Top 14 match with Montauban. As a result, he misses out on playing for Fiji in the 2007 World Cup, but eventually scores three tries on his return to Pro D2 action against Toulon in December.

July 2008: Caucau signs up to play for Racing-Metro, but never arrives in Paris despite the club sending him two sets of flight tickets. Fellow Racing Fijian Sireli Bobo, who was due to travel over from Fiji with Caucau and who sent him money to get him to the airport, calls him “a disgrace to all Fijian players”.

September 2008: The Fijian is invited to a trial at Leicester but fails to turn up, missing the flight he was expected to catch, then suffering via problems before he announced that he would be returning to Fiji to play in the World Sevens Series. Before long, however, he was dropped from the sevens squad, and two months later, re-signs for Agen.

June 2009: Caucau announces that he would no longer be making himself available for the Fijian team, on account that being drafted for test duty only brought him “bad luck”. Nine months later, he states his desire to play for Fiji at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

June 2010: He returns to international action for Fiji against Australia, but during the pre-match build-up, hints that he’d like to play for an Australian Super 15 franchise this season. Fiji coach Sam Domoni claims that “discussions are already well advanced” and that Caucau was mulling over the offers.

July 2010: Caucau fails to turn up for pre-season training with newly promoted Agen. The club suspend his contract and tell him to lose some weight, before he is eventually found in Fiji, undergoing treatment for a shoulder injury from a natural healer.