Reports in the Fijian media on Monday said Naqelevuki had been suspended from all levels of rugby for an indefinite period.

Naqelevuki, who had hoped to secure a Stormers contract for the 2007 Super 14 tournament, had apparently tested positive for cannabis after representing his country in the second leg of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens series in George late last year.

According to reports Naqelevuki has since admitted to the IRB's Anti-Doping Council that he had used marijuana prior to the first two rounds of the 2006/07 Series.

The 26-year-old Fijian is now waiting to be summoned for another hearing by the IRB Judicial Committee which will determine his fate.

While IRB regulations do allow for the player to get away with just a warning or a suspended sentence, sources within the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) have indicated that the player will almost certainly be banned from the game.

Stormers Managing Director Rob Wagner, speaking to rugby365.com, said Naqelevuki's Super 14 contract will now fall away.

"We are going ahead without him," he said.

Wagner also revealed that he had been in touch with administrators in Fiji, who suggested that the player will be severely sanctioned.

"The people we have spoken to [in Fiji] are adamant that he will be banned," Wagner told this website. He declined to reveal whom he sources are.

However, he described the players' actions as "sad" and said it is unacceptable that a professional player should make himself guilty of such a transgression.

"We simply cannot condone anything like this. He is a role model for young players and if he is indeed guilty of what he is accused of, it is not the kind of example we would want him to set. It would be sending out the wrong message," Wagner said.

Dr Ismail Jakoet, medical chief of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) and a member of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), said on Monday that the IRB prescribes a maximum ban of just one year for cannabis.

"Cannabis appears on the IRB's wider list of illegal substances," Jakoet told this website.

"This wider list includes substances that are susceptible to being take unintentionally, because of their uses medicinally, and also substances that are unsuccessful in doping [performance enhancing].

"If a player tests positive for a wider list substance, and can prove he did not take the substance with an intention to enhance performance, he does not have to face the usual mandatory punishment for doping - which is a two year ban."

Jakoet added that a player testing positive for the use of cannabis can face punishment of anything up to a one-year ban, or "a mere rap on the knuckles".

Naqelevuki, who has been missing in action at the Stormers for almost six weeks now, is unlikely to get sympathy from officials in his own country - who are keen to stamp out the indiscipline that has marked players in their national teams in recent years.

Naqelevuki initially returned home from Cape Town [the Stormers' base] with special permission after the George Sevens tournament in December, ostensibly to be with his family in the wake of the military coup in the country.

However, he failed to resurface or make contact with Stormers officials.

A litany of excuses filtered back to the Cape for his non-appearance - ranging from a lost passport, a missed flight and visa problems.

It could be that his positive test may have played a role.

By Chris Waldburger and Jan de Koning