Adriano looks to have played his last match for Inter Milan after failing to return to the Serie A leaders from international duty with Brazil this month and announcing he was taking a break from football.

President Massimo Moratti said last week that Inter were considering extinguishing the player’s contract, which runs until the end of next season.

They have grounds to do so as the failure to turn up to work of the 27-year-old, who has suffered alcohol and personal problems, comes after a string of run-ins with coaches and incidents of indiscipline.

In fairness, Inter have tried hard to restore the fine fettle Adriano displayed between 2004 and 2006, when he was one of Serie A’s most feared forwards and helped Brazil win the 2004 Copa America as the competition’s top scorer.

They allowed him to have a loan stint at Sao Paulo in the first half of 2008, when he scored 16 goals, but he was soon out of sorts again when back in Italy even though his old foe Roberto Mancini had been replaced by coach Jose Mourinho.

Indeed, this time the club appear to have few alternatives to offloading the player after he said he is unhappy in Italy and wants to “live in peace here in Brazil”.

If life in Serie A is really what is getting Adriano down, he will probably not be tempted by future offers from Inter’s domestic rivals, something his agent suggested on Friday.

The burly striker’s comments seem to rule out a move elsewhere in Europe too and his fragile reputation would probably scare off the top clubs at the moment anyway.

But with his blend of speed, power and agility he remains potentially formidable and if gets back into the groove in his homeland, he may soon find the Brazilian top flight limited.

A return to form would help foreign managers forget his troubled past, at which point a transfer to the English Premier League, where the off-field pressure is less intense than in Serie A, would not be out of the question.

You never know. Adriano could come back to haunt Inter in the Champions League yet.

PHOTO: Inter Milan’s Brazilian soccer striker Adriano smiles during a news conference in Rio de Janeiro, April 9, 2009. Reuters photo.

A missing person’s hunt has ended happily in Brazil. Inter Milan striker Adriano has been found.

The burly 27-year-old, who has battled drink and personal problems in the past, failed to return to Italy last week after being an unused substitute in Brazil’s World Cup qualifiers with Ecuador and Peru. Inter had no idea where he was.

Brazilian and Italian media were filled with stories about his whereabouts. Some said he had missed his plane, some said he was dancing in the streets of a Rio favella, some said he had locked himself inside his Rio home and switched off his phone. One report even said he might be dead.

After five days with no definite news, his agent announced that Adriano had been visiting friends in the Vila Cruzeiro shanty-town where he was raised.

“It’s not a family problem,” Gilmar Rinaldi said as he tried to explain why Adriano had missed Inter’s 1-0 win at Udinese on Sunday. “It’s something very personal, which could happen to anyone, but it’s a private thing and that’s why I can’t say what it is.”

Instead of slamming the striker for his behaviour like he has in the past, Inter coach Jose Mourinho has been sympathetic to Adriano’s plight.

But with a year left on his Inter contract, it is difficult to imagine Adriano ever playing for the Italian champions again. Would any other club want to take a risk on him?

Adriano is surely one of the most frustrating players in the world.

The Brazilian has all the assets needed to be one of the very best strikers — power, pace and guile — yet he has wasted several opportunities to show he can be consistently good.

Indiscipline is part of his problem. Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho left him out for five games after he ignored his orders in a league match, stayed out at a night club and turned up late for training.

Cunning Mourinho brought him back for this weekend’s big clash with rivals Juventus, hoping Adriano would make the most of his return from exile.

Serie A leaders Inter deservedly won 1-0 and Adriano was alright but did nothing spectacular. Afterwards Mourinho defended his decision to recall the striker saying he needed ‘an animal’ to battle against Juve.

But didn’t Adriano used to be something more than an animal? 

He scored goals for fun for Inter and Brazil in 2004 and 2005, good goals at that, but a disappointing World Cup was the start of a sharp decline. His lifestyle upset then Inter boss Roberto Mancini and last year an overweight Adriano was packed off on loan to Sao Paulo.

He rediscovered his verve in Brazil and on his return to Inter it looked like he was going to be a regular, threatening Mourinho’s obsession with three upfront. 

Now the 26-year-old is once again in no man’s land. Will he finally fulfill his potential or is ‘the Animal’ destined to feed off scraps for the rest of his career?

PHOTO: Inter Milan’s Adriano (R) challenges Giorgio Chiellini of Juventus during their Serie A match at the San Siro, Nov. 22. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo