Serie A side fear their striker has gone missing after 13 days without contact

The player was vital to his club's survival last season.

Banda, a Zambian international, has "baffled" everyone involved with his club including some of his closest teammates.

The "Banda Case" began to emerge a serious story when contract negotiations between the player and Lecce began to stall a few weeks ago.

His initial contract expired in June, but it also contained a "unilateral option" for Lecce to extend the terms for an extra year.

Lameck Banda has not made contact with his club for the past 13 days.

With the club struggling to reach a new agreement, they went ahead with the year extension, in order to keep their star at the club instead of losing him on a free transfer.

Although this contract change hadn't immediately led to conflict, midway through July when the Lecce squad were called up to begin their pre-season preparations, Banda was nowhere to be seen.

Reports also emerged that Banda had been approached over a lucrative deal to join Saudi club Al-Fateh.

The player's agent is reported to have told Lecce his delay was due to "passport issues," however there has still been no contact with the club since.

On July 23rd, the player was photographed at an airport in Zambia, providing hope he was headed to Italy, but he still did not arrive with Lecce.

Since then, the Italian outlet report:" There has been no further news of Lameck. Nobody knows where he is, what he's doing, or even what he intends to achieve."

It now remains to be seen whether the player returns to training.