The 25-year-old Cameroonian has delayed his return to pre-season training due to a family illness. The club have taken a compassionate view of the player's predicament, but expect him to report in for duty at Bodymoor Heath within days but they must surely fear his frustration at a lack of first-team opportunities has merely risen to a head again.
He was fined for an unscheduled absence after the African Cup of Nations in February when he returned to deny reports that he was unsettled. Reports that may or may not have arisen from a televised interview with Eurosport when he said: "It's the manager's fault because he needs to change the team. If he doesn't do something soon, then maybe we will go down. What's going wrong? It is the tactics. I think he needs to change the tactics. Every time he just plays forwards. We need to try and play and enjoy keeping the ball. If we can do that, we can score more goals."
In fairness, it sounds a pretty accurate assessment.