Fan favourite Fuifui Moimoi, a hard-hitting forward who was one of the faces of the franchise, and two other big-name forwards have left the Toronto Wolfpack suddenly with the translatlantic rugby league team's season opener coming up in February.

Ryan Bailey, a former Great Britain and England international, and former Australian international Dave Taylor have also departed. Taylor had not played for the club, having signed in September in the off-season.

The rugby league club offered no explanation in a terse statement but it appears there was some kind of incident at training camp with the club moving swiftly to nip the problem in the bud.

"Ryan Bailey, Fuifui Moimoi and Dave Taylor have left Toronto Wolfpack by mutual agreement. The club [thanks] the players for their efforts, and wish them well in their future careers," the statement read.

Coach Paul Rowley did not immediately return a phone call, but told NRL.com that "for legal reasons we can't say much more." The club did not expand on its statement when asked.

Taylor had not played for the club, having signed in September in the off-season.

Toronto opens the season Feb. 4 at Leigh Centurions. The team has been training in Portugal and England ahead of its second season — and its first in the second-tier Championship. It started a five-day warm-weather camp in Portugal this week.

Growing list of departures ahead of season

The unexplained departure of three name players is one of the few hiccups surrounding the Wolfpack, a success story to date after winning promotion out of English rugby league's third-tier Kingstone Press League 1 in its first season.

The team drew well and avoided making headlines off the field.

However, gone are captain and League 1 MVP Craig Hall, Canadian international Rhys Jacks, Steve Crossley, Tom Dempsey, Shaun Pick and Sean Penkywicz. American Ryan Burroughs and Victoria's Quinn Ngawati may be loaned out to get more playing time.

The 38-year-old Moimoi, a former New Zealand and Tongan international built like a refrigerator, was a cult figure with the Parramatta Eels in Australia's National Rugby League before coming to the Wolfpack after a stint in England.

It usually took several tacklers to bring him down, much to the delight of Wolfpack fans.

The 33-year-old Bailey, another big man who is hard to miss with Love and Hate tattooed on his eyelids, recently won an appeal against U.K. Anti-Doping, negating a possible four-year ban. His debut season with the Wolfpack was disrupted by injury.

Taylor, 29, was one of the Wolfpack's big-name off-season recruits, touted as a big-hitter like Moimoi. He previously played for Brisbane, South Sydney, Gold Coast and Canberra Raiders in the NRL and the Catalans Dragons in the Super League, also representing Queensland in the State of Origin series.

"There's clearly some crazy good things happening with rugby league in Toronto and I can't wait to get there," he said upon signing.

Now it appears, he will never know.