Back row Hanro Liebenberg will leave Leicester Tigers at the end of the season to rejoin South African side the Bulls.
The 30-year-old was a member of Leicester’s Premiership title-winning side in 2022 and has played 141 games for the club, scoring 31 tries.
Head coach Geoff Parling said discussions had been ongoing for several months but Liebenberg had opted to leave for family reasons.
“We would have loved him to stay – I think he would have loved to stay from a rugby point of view,” Parling told BBC Radio Leicester.
“We knew we were signing Aaron Wainwright with this in mind, another quality guy to come in, but he (Liebenberg) is a great influence on the group and hopefully we have a big finish to his time at Tigers.”
Leicester are at home to Bath in the Prem Rugby Cup semi-finals on Sunday and are currently in the play-off positions in the league, having won seven of their 10 games so far.
“This decision has been one of the toughest decisions of my career. I love this place and everyone has given me so much,” said Liebenberg, who first signed for Leicester ahead of the 2019 season.
“The club and the trophies here are special, but what I will always remember is the people, the fans. They have always had my back, always had my family’s back and always looked out for me.
“What you want to do is leave this place in a better position than when I found it, and I’d like to think that I’ve done that.”
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