On Wednesday, negotiations between Alex Sanderson and Manu Tuilagi are expected to result in the England midfielder committing his future to Sale beyond the current season.
Initially, due to the reduced salary cap, Sale’s offer was deemed “insulting” by Sanderson, but the club has since made improvements to their planning for the 2023/24 season, resulting in a much better deal being offered.
“We want him, he wants to stay,” began Sanderson.
“We had no money, then we had a bit of money, now we have got twice as much money than we did have. I’m going to Lymm tomorrow to sit down with him to see if it’s enough. I know he wants to stay, so this is just a question of whether his family can survive on it and how much he is willing to sacrifice. I guess I will be buying lunch.”
Asked if there was a specific date for a decision to be taken one way or another, Sanderson added: “Not a deadline so to speak, as soon as possible if we can.
“I would say the next couple of weeks, and he’d want it wrapped up as well.”
Manu Tuilagi shows off incredible body transformation ahead of new season
Manu Tuilagi has ensured he returns to Sale Sharks pre-season in the best possible shape after sharing a snap of his physique as he looks to be involved in England’s 2023 World Cup campaign.
The trimmed-down England centre has lost 2kgs after ending his guilty pleasure of binging on food.
Now off the crutches, the centre has continued to slim down as he looks to lessen his chance of injury.
Heading into the summer, Tuilagi tipped the scales at 114kg (17-stone 9lbs), but has lost six kgs [10lbs] and should drop a stone in weight once they are two or three games into the club season.
“I love my food. It is a mentality thing, you probably think you will be alright and you will get through it, until you think about it and you change your mentality.
“Running around for 80 minutes, those 2kgs can weigh you down quite a bit so we thought, lose a bit of weight and that would allow us to be a bit more mobile, a bit more agile.”
BEST RUGBY TRANSFORMATIONS:
Below, we look at five other rugby stars who transformed their bodies to get themselves into top condition.
#1. David Pocock
The Wallabies legend started out as an skinny 78kg teen who worked day in and day out to transform himself, with his size and strength came at a cost, Pocock told Australian Story.
