Parramatta Eels player Semi Radradra has been given two days to explain why he failed to attend a court hearing to answer to domestic violence charges, including one of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
The case was scheduled to be heard today, but it has emerged that the winger left the country last Wednesday, to be with his ill father in Fiji.
His lawyers submitted a letter from a doctor in Fiji, which referred to his father's asthma and pulmonary tuberculosis.
"He's clearly been on treatment for some time. What's changed?" Magistrate Tim Keady asked.
"I accept, it could be more substantive," Radradra's barrister Murugan Thangaraj SC said.
The court heard the hearing date had been set in September and recently confirmed.
His lawyers have been given until Wednesday to provide medical evidence showing an urgent need for Radradra to travel to Fiji.
If none is submitted, a warrant for his arrest will be activated.
Mr Keady said domestic violence cases were given priority by the courts.
"There are events in life we can't control [but] I expected to be given information in support of it medically," he said.
The charges relate to a previous relationship and the assaults allegedly took place in 2014 and 2015.
Police may have sought to have Radradra convicted in his absence but they had recently applied to have the hearing delayed, because two of their witnesses were attending a conference in Victoria.