Stephen Larkham, the Australia fly-half, could spend the rest of his career in Japan after his planned move to Edinburgh collapsed.

The 33-year-old had agreed a two-year deal with the Scottish side when they were run by Edinburgh Rugby Ltd but it was scrapped when the club returned to the control of the Scottish Rugby Union in August.

The unexpected end of the franchise agreement coincided with Larkham's World Cup commitments and meant that he had little time to arrange an alternative deal with a European club.

He did hold talks with Newport Gwent Dragons but said that a minor knee injury put off the Welsh club. Larkham had promised to "change the landscape" of Scottish rugby but is now in negotiations with Top League teams in Japan.

"The beauty of Japan is it's a little bit closer to home," he said. "The cut-off for the European tournament was the 18th of this month, so we really didn't have a lot of time when Edinburgh pulled out.

"During the World Cup and all that, you'd think there would be plenty of time but with injury and everything there was no time to get around. We finally got around to see Toulouse at the end, but they basically wanted us to be back there in two weeks and that gave us no time to get stuff organised here.

"Everything was just so rushed because Edinburgh pulled out so late, so now we're looking at other options and Japan comes up in June next year which certainly would be a bit easier for us at this stage."