Bok wing's playing future up in the air

NEWS: Sharks head coach Sean Everitt revealed that there are discussions that still need to happen with Springbok wing Sibusiso Nkosi over the latter's playing future.

It has been widely reported that the Bulls are after the 26-year-old's signature to fill the void that will be left by Madosh Tambwe, who is reportedly set to join French club Bordeaux later this year.

"He has been offered to go to the Bulls, but nothing has been put on paper yet and nothing's final," Everitt told reporters during a virtual press conference on Thursday.

"There are negotiations that still have to happen as [Sharks Chief Executive] Eduard Coetzee has mentioned."

In an interview with TimesLive last week, Eduard Coetzee confirmed that there was a possibility that the Bok wing could leave the franchise.

"We are still negotiating with Sbu. We’ve got a lot of high-profile players like Siya Kolisi, Bongi Mbonambi, Makazole Mapimpi, Lukhanyo Am and obviously they all cost a lot of money," said Coetzee.

"We would definitely like to keep Sbu, but we haven’t agreed just beyond his current contract. There’s a possibility he might leave but nothing has been confirmed.

"It’s part of our game and part of our industry that we will lose some players. Obviously, we don’t want to lose a player like Sbu but we also know that we can’t keep all the players. We are going to fight hard but there is a possibility we might lose him."

There has also been a lot of speculation around Nkosi's absence from the Sharks team over the last few weeks and whether it was related to contractual issues.

However, Everitt said the player's absence was due to health issues.

"He was never injured," Everitt explained.

"He had health issues. He had a gastric intestinal virus and he hasn’t recovered from that and as soon as he has recovered, he will be up for selection."

Meanwhile, Everitt gave an update on injured fullback Aphelele Fassi.

Fassi suffered an ankle injury in his team's win over Zebre last week.

"We are not exactly sure of the date he [Fassi] will return to play, but we are hoping that he will be ready for the Lions [on April 9]," said the Sharks coach.

@rugby365com