Channel 7 commentator Kane Cornes has called on Izak Rankine to “front up” after images emerged of the suspended Adelaide star leaving the country over the weekend.

7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary revealed Rankine departed Adelaide on Friday night and transited through Italy after being granted an extended leave of absence from the club.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Rankine escapes to Europe after slur suspension.

Rankine left the country the day after he was handed a four-match AFL ban for a homophobic slur directed at a Collingwood player.

The ban was originally slated at five matches, but reduced to four as part of a “compelling medical submissions” from Adelaide.

The suspension, which was widely viewed as lenient given past instances, gave Rankine a glimmer of a hope to return this year.

He will be available to play in the grand final should the Crows lose the first week of finals then win the semi and preliminary finals.

Rankine was in the air as his teammates defeated North Melbourne on Saturday to secure the minor premiership.

Speak on Channel 7’s Sunday night AFL coverage, Cornes said he didn’t like the look of Rankine leaving the country.

“I don’t like the look of it to be honest,” he said.

“I think when you make an error like that, you front up to it and accept it is coming your way and get back at the club as soon as you possibly can, getting yourself in the best possible shape.

“Looks to me as he is running away from the problem and I don’t think it’s a great look that Adelaide have allowed him to do that and escape particularly when there have been some compelling reasons as to why it was reduced from five to four.”

Cornes doubled down on his thoughts on Monday morning when North Melbourne great David King said the reporting on Rankine was “out of line”.

“The fact they’re taking videos of him getting on a plane to get away from the stress of everything he’s going through at the moment,” King said on SEN.

“He’s gone overseas to get away from all of this type of attention. Can we just give him a spell? Can we just back off a bit?”

Cornes hit back, saying Rankine needs to front up.

“I couldn’t disagree with you more. If you do the crime, front up to it, don’t look like you are running away and escaping,” he said.

“This is a big news story. The pictures of him jumping on a plane and heading to Rome after he’s lobbied the AFL for a compelling medical reason that we do not know is a major football story.

“Well done to them for capturing that. There are some people out there who would be thinking, and rightly so, that he’s running away from his problems.

“You’ve got to front up.

“I’m not sure jumping on a plane to an exotic overseas destination is a good look after everything that has gone on this week.

“He’s essentially gone on holidays. It looks like that, he’s chosen to go to Rome.

“I want him to go to West Lakes and front up and face the music.”

King argued that the stress Rankine would be under would be a valid reason to escape it all.

Cornes agreed the player would be doing it tough, but still maintained the best thing would be to front up and face the media.

“He’s fronted up to an overseas trip, so it’s not like he can’t get out of the house,” he continued.

“I understand there’s stress on him, of course there is, he’d be feeling awful.

“But when you do a crime like that, when you make an error, I think the best thing to do is to front up.

“I would have put him up in front of the media, if he was capable of doing that, at some stage this week. I’d be out there training with my teammates who are trying to win a premiership for the first time this century.

“At some point he’s going to have to face up, at some point he’s going to have to return to training. Adelaide might lose to Collingwood (in the qualifying final) and then does he want to play in the grand final? Is he capable of getting himself in that space to play in a premiership? Because they’ll pick him.

“So at some point the is going to have to face the music.

“There’d be some people he offended looking at that and shaking their heads.

“I wonder what the AFL would think about it as well. Adelaide allowing him to jump on a plane and go to Rome was an error.”

Crows coach Matthew Nicks said last week a lot of people would be “doing it tough” in the wake of Rankine’s suspension, but that his star player shouldn’t be portrayed as the victim.

Nicks said while he and the club were offering Rankine every support, there was no excuse for his slur directed at an opponent.

“Izak has got some great support around him,” Nicks told reporters on Friday.

“He has acknowledged where he went wrong and he’s worked his way through that in the right manner.

“He understands that we have got to be better in that space.

“But he’s not the victim in this. And by no means do we want that to be looked at that way — and he knows that.”