Newcastle Knights' second-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon has previously been linked to an English Super League move, and now his management has confirmed that, despite his desire, he is no sure thing to stay at the Knights.
One of the key forwards in Adam O'Brien's pack, Fitzgibbon has played more than 100 games with the Hunter-based outfit since making his debut in 2015.
Despite that, he has struggled to stay on the field in the last two seasons, playing just ten and nine matches respectively.
He has already notched up 11 matches in the 2023 campaign though as he pushes for a new deal - something that it appears may not be coming at the Knights with the wait continuing.
A member of his management has now told Wide World of Sports that the Knights have issues in their salary cap, and that Fitzgibbon has received interest both in Australia and England.
"Lachlan has been a Knight since 2015 and wants to stay," a member of Fitzgibbon's management team told Wide World of Sports.
"But like a lot of clubs, the Knights have salary cap issues and that complicates things.
"We will sit down with him soon and decide what his next move is."
It comes with the Knights having a significant portion of their salary cap tied up in Kalyn Ponga and other key players, with all of Tyson Frizell, Daniel Saifiti, Jacob Saifiti and Bradman Best linked with an exit from the club in recent times.
Frizell, unlike the other trio mentioned, is off-contract at the end of the year and it's understood that both the Wests Tigers and Canterbury Bulldogs will make a move for the recalled New South Wales Blue.
The Knights, including Frizell and Fitzgibbon, have 13 players still off-contract at the end of this campaign (Dane Aukafolau, Adam Clune, Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Tyson Frizell, Bailey Hodgson, Hymel Hunt, Jack Johns, Brodie Jones, Kurt Mann, Kobe Rugless, Tavita Toloi, Enari Tuala and Chris Vea'ila) with the underperforming team potentially in for a shake-up ahead of the twin arrivals of Kai Pearce-Paul and Will Pryce from the start of next year.
If the Tigers have any sense they’ll go for Fitzgibbon and not Frizell. Fitzgibbon is much more mobile and passionate about they way he plays.