O'Connor trained with the Wallabies in Brisbane on Wednesday despite the fact he had still not signed a contract to play in Australia next year.

It's understands negotiations were held up because the Queensland Rugby Union want to insert behaviourial clauses into their offer, so keen are they to avoid a repeat of their dramas with past players Karmichael Hunt and James Slipper.

O'Connor has not put a foot wrong publicly since his arrest for cocaine use in Paris two years ago, rebuilding his career with Sale in the UK Premiership.

The Sharks released him from his contract on Tuesday, with director of rugby Steve Diamonds wishing him well after 31 appearances at inside centre.

And it appears Australia are about to welcome him back for a third time, as long as he is prepared to toe the line.

"It's great that guys are putting their hands up and wanting to be part of the Wallabies' team," Foley said after O'Connor's first run with the Test hopefuls.

"Already he's shown he's a quality player, he has that intent and desire to come back and play for the Wallabies. That's only a good thing.

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"It builds the competition, builds the competitiveness around the team and selections, with each person driving each other to be a better player."

Foley is a few months older than O'Connor but his Test career hadn't started when O'Connor was escorted, drunk, from a plane at Perth Airport after a Wallabies match in 2013.

It was the incident that ended a 44-Test career for the then-23-year-old, who was 18 when he became the second-youngest Wallaby debutant in 2008.

Foley played his first Test, against Argentina in Rosario, two games after O'Connor played his last. Foley has 68 Tests under his belt, while O'Connor has plied his trade in England and France either side of a short stint with Queensland as he tried to crack Michael Cheika's 2015 World Cup squad.

It is not clear whether he will be successful this time around.

Despite what was, by all reports, an energetic turn at training, noises out of Wallabies camp suggested Cheika was unlikely to name him in his squad for South Africa. Concerned about the message it could send, handing a spot to a player who has only just arrived, the Wallabies coach could delay O'Connor's inclusion until the week leading into the Pumas Test at Suncorp Stadium.

It is also unclear where it leaves Australian men's sevens coach Tim Walsh, who wanted O'Connor for Australia's Olympics campaign next year and worked hard to bring the dual-format plan to Rugby Australia.

RA's director of rugby Scott Johnson appears to have run with it but, by bringing Queensland into the agreement, also sidelined Walsh.

Faced with the departure of No.12 and captain Samu Kerevi, as well as his understudy Duncan Paia'aua, the Reds have developed into enthusiastic supporters of the plan. They went as far as sounding out the Reds playing group on Tuesday night.

But if he signs with Queensland for 2020 and 2021, it appears O'Connor and Walsh's Olympics plan is dead in the water, given head coach Brad Thorn will be reluctant to release his new recruit for sevens duty.

The pair had agreed a proposal that O'Connor would play in the World Cup if selected and then be available for sevens selection in the new World Series, getting a handful of tournaments under his belt before playing in Tokyo (subject to Australian qualification).

But Johnson and the Reds appear set on O'Connor playing XVs exclusively, despite his chequered off-field history.

The QRU's push for extra protections to be built into the contract in the event O'Connor's homecoming goes off the rails is not an unusual situation.

The Waratahs varied the standard player contract when they signed Karmichael Hunt. The QRU also has some recent, painful history on contractual matters, paying out former Wallabies coach John Connolly to the tune of $150,000 after sacking him six weeks into a two-season contract.

RA will also have the Israel Folau controversy front of mind. In that case the executives in charge of negotiating Folau's four-year deal last year wanted to vary the standard player contract to beef up protections around social media.

They didn't send the right contract at the time, but it also emerged they had not consulted with the Rugby Union Players' Association, which they were required to do under the collective bargaining agreement to change a standard contract.