Wallaby coach Eddie Jones said on Monday he was confident Andrew Walker would submit to team discipline in the future, but ruled out his automatic return for the deciding Vodacom Tri-Nations Test against New Zealand on September 1.

Walker, who meets Jones in Canberra on Tuesday to discuss his future, disappeared last week while in transit at Sydney when the Wallabies were flying from New Zealand to Perth for last Saturday's Tri-Nations Test with South Africa.

"The discussion's quite simply about the need for Andrew to be able to follow team discipline policy," Jones said. "Andrew needs to assure me he can do that and if he can satisfy that then he'll definitely be eligible for selection.

"He's remorseful for what he has done. From the phone calls we've had he's certainly willing to follow the team discipline policies."

Walker's inclusion on Australia's end-of-year tour to Canada and Europe was still in doubt, however, as it coincides with the time his wife Leona was due to give birth to their fourth child.

"We certainly need to have a chat about that," Jones said. "It's a difficult situation, we need to find out what Andrew would like to do and what's the best thing for him and his family and work things out from there."

And Jones refused to say Walker would reclaim his place on the wing from Chris Latham against the All Blacks. "We have to get through tomorrow first," he said. "Although Walks has been in good form, we were quite happy with the way Chris Latham played."

Latham stood in for Walker in the 14-14 drawn Test with the Boks at Perth.

Jones said he had not had any problems with Walker since he returned to rugby union to play under him at the ACT in 2000, although there had been well-documented instances of ill-discipline during his rugby league career.

Despite a report over the weekend that Walker would be asked to stop drinking, Jones said that would not be part of Tuesday's discussion.

Walker's manager Wayne Beavis admitted he lacked discipline in the past, but denied he had a drinking problem. "Like all of us he's imbibed from time to time excessively, generally I don't think it's been a problem," Beavis said.

"I can't see if it had been a problem in the past where the situation wouldn't have raised its head before. This has been his first fault in two years. He's matured since he's been playing union."

Beavis said he was confident Jones would forgive Walker. "He's done the crime and paid the fine, let's get on with it. Of course he regrets what happened. He just wanted to be with his family." - Sapa