Australian basketballer Liz Cambage will miss next months Opals’ qualifying series for the Rio 2016 Olympics after she chose to go to a music festival rather than attending training camp.

The starlet of the Australian women’s game was required to attend two sessions in Melbourne over the weekend to get medical clearance to play in three warm up matches against Japan.

Instead the 23-year-old went to Byron Bay’s Splendour in the Grass, a three-day music festival.

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As a result, she was dropped from the squad – meaning she will miss this week’s practice games and the two-leg Oceania Championships against New Zealand beginning on August 15 in Melbourne.

Cambage ruptured her achilles tendon 10 months ago and was due to return to basketball for the practice matches.

Opals coach Brendan Joyce said he was both disappointed and surprised by Cambage’s move, but the decision to drop her from the team was “pretty easy”.

“We haven’t been emotional about it – it’s a decision that had to be made, not only for Liz but for the team,” Joyce told AAP.

Opals’ great Lauren Jackson supported the stance taken by Basketball Australia. She said Cambage’s decision was hard to understand.

“I’m baffled,” four-time Olympic medallist and friend Jackson told AAP. “I’ve played on that team for 20 years and nobody has ever done that.

“I don’t know what the real reason is; I just hope that whatever reason she’s chosen to be there is just as important as what an Olympic gold medal is – because this is preparation for it.

“Is it disrespectful? Maybe. To some of the girls, they may take offence to that and it’s probably letting a lot of people down.”

Only July 21, before the camp and the music festival, Cambage sent out a tweet indicating she intended to line up in the practice series against Japan.

A fan asked her to “dunk on someone” from Japan, to which Cambage replied “Just for you”.

Just for you RT @generik_dj: Yo @ecambage can you dunk on someone in Japan and yell GOML 4 me PLZ???

— Elizabeth Cambage (@ecambage) July 21, 2015

– with AAP