Manu Tuilagi linked with multiple Top 14 clubs - report

With Sale Sharks centre Manu Tuilagi's contract set to expire at the end of the season, he has inevitably found himself at the heart of plenty of transfer rumours.

Ever since the 2019 World Cup, the 32-year-old has persistently been linked with a move to the Top 14, and Midi Olympique have reported this week that several clubs are pursuing the 112kg centre again.

Top 14 outfits Bayonne and Montpellier have reportedly already made contact with Tuilagi's team, while Toulon are also looking for a big signing. However, Perpignan are the frontrunners to sign the 2013 British & Irish Lion, according to the report.

The Tuilagi family has a long history with Perpignan much in the same way it does with Leicester Tigers. Manu's older brother Henry played for the Catalan club for almost a decade, while his son (Manu's nephew), 19-year-old lock Posolo, is one of the rising stars not only of Perpignan, but of French rugby.

As mentioned, this is not the first time that 59-cap England international has attracted interest from abroad, and up until now his clubs have managed to stave off pursuers. Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson is again confident that they will be able to keep hold of Tuilagi for another season.

Regarding Tuilagi's future, Sanderson recently said: "Last year was supposed to be Manu’s last year but with Jono Ross leaving and Coenie (Oosthuizen) going back (to South Africa), some money in the pot opened up. It was like, ‘Right, brilliant, we can keep you’.

“Then when he came back from the World Cup I was like, ‘Right, how are you feeling? You reckon you have got another year in you?’ I don’t know how we are going to do it still, but he is like, ‘Let’s get back on the field and go for another steak’, so we will chat over a glass of wine.

“He is more enthusiastic, more energetic than most of the 19- and 20-year-olds we have got knocking around the place,” reckoned Sanderson. “His want and desire to play and play again in this Champions Cup on the back of the World Cup, it’s quite astonishing really because it is always the drive that goes first.

“He is loving it. He is loving playing, he is loving being out there, he is probably loving the time he gets to spend away from his house – he has just got a newly-born baby so he gets a bit of a respite. He is bouncing around today, back-slapping and high-fiving, just looking like a guy 10 years younger than he is.”

For the time being, Tuilagi is expected to miss the beginning of the Guinness Six Nations, which begins in February, due to a groin injury he picked up at the end of December.