THE scan on Rupeni Caucaunibuca's knee was encouraging. The size of his waistline isn't.
But despite the former Blues and Fiji international carrying an impressive 119kg, Northland have signed him for this year's ITM Cup.
Just what exactly they have bought is hard to tell. In 2003 and 2004, Rupeni was the best wing in the world. He was probably more than that. In those two years he played in New Zealand he did enough to be considered one of the greatest wings to ever play the game.
His speed testing records still haven't been beaten at the Blues. In fact, no one in New Zealand has even come close. Joe Rokocoko, rightly dubbed the 'Rocket Man', was a cart-horse by comparison.
Rupeni left seriously good test operators such as Joe Roff, Chris Latham and Clyde Rathbone looking almost laughably bad at various times.
In the 2003 Super 12 semifinal, he scooped the ball from the sodden turf with one hand, refusing to break stride before meandering his way past five defenders for the defining try of the campaign.
He went to the Rugby World Cup with Fiji later that year and carved up France and Scotland despite being a good 10kg overweight following an extended injury break.
Sadly, Rupeni being drastically overweight became the norm.
His life off the field has been impossibly difficult to fathom. It has often taken the path of a bad soap opera.
He's gone missing at various stages; his passport has gone missing at others; there has been a drug ban, multiple fall-outs with his former club Agen and perhaps not surprisingly, he's reached this stage of his career on the verge of financial ruin.
"It's fair to say he doesn't have much left," says Northland chief executive Jeremy Parkinson.
"Pretty much everything has been squandered, so we haven't had to pay too much to get him. He is 119kg and has been playing at that weight for a while.
But we think we can get him fitter and get his weight down.
He'll be on a program and we aren't putting any targets in place but we'd like to get him down to 110kg or maybe even 105kg."