Leicester Tigers have confirmed the departure of five players who failed to reach a new pay deal with the Premiership club.
Greg Bateman, Kyle Eastmond, Noel Reid, Manu Tuilagi and Telusa Veainu had been asked to take a salary cut in light of the ongoing impact of the coronavirus epidemic.
In a statement, Leicester said the employment of the five players "has now ended, and they will no longer be playing for the club."
📄 𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐁 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 Leicester Tigers can confirm that the employment of Greg Bateman, Kyle Eastmond, Noel Reid and Manu Tuilagi, as well as Telusa Veainu, who signed with French club Stade Francais earlier this week, has now ended. https://t.co/Ruz5mse0K9 — Leicester Tigers (@LeicesterTigers) July 10, 2020
The statement continued: "The five players were stood down last week after being unable to reach a necessary, amended agreement with the club on their pay, of which all other contracted members of the squad for the period from July 1, 2020, agreed to due to the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Leicester Tigers."
Leicester confirmed that a sixth player, Jordan Taufua, is still in discussions with the club following a period of quarantine after returning from New Zealand.
The club had taken the step of naming the players who were set to leave the club on July 1, after their deadline for accepting the new deals expired.
Last month, Premiership teams voted unanimously to reduce the salary cap from £6.4million to £5million to help mitigate the effects of the pandemic.
