FILE - Springboks wing S'bu Nkosi runs with the ball during a Test match against the Wallabies in 2019. According to a Bulls insider, Nkosi has tested positive for a banned substance. Picture: Phill Magakoe / AFP
Springboks 2019 Rugby World Cup winner S'bu Nkosi has tested positive for an anabolic steroid, an official from Bloemfontein-based team Cheetahs told AFP on Sunday.
"I can confirm reports that Sbu underwent a World Rugby test in May and his A sample was positive," said the official, who requested anonymity as he is not the club spokesman.
The 28-year-old winger, who understudied Cheslin Kolbe at the World Cup in Japan, could be banned for four years if his B sample is also positive.
Another 2019 World Cup-winning Springbok, flyhalf Elton Jantjies, was suspended for four years last January for using the banned substance Clenbuterol.
Back in 2019, another Springbok wing Aphiwe Dyantyi was banned for four years he failed to prove that he was unknowingly exposed to banned substances after he tested positive for metandienone, methyltestosterone, and LGD-4033.
The positive result came while he was in camp with the Springboks, and the winger, who had set the field alight after his debut in 2018, subsequently missed out on selection for the 2019 World Cup.
Nkosi won the first of 16 Test caps against England in 2018 and his last appearance was against All Blacks three years later. He scored nine tries those matches for the Springboks.
He suffered mental health challenges after moving from the Sharks to the Bulls and disappeared for several weeks in 2022, triggering a police search, before being found at the home of a relative.
Cheetahs, who gave Nkosi a one-year contract this year, withdrew the winger from a Currie Cup match against the Bulls in Pretoria on Friday, citing "personal reasons".
AFP