Ruan Ackermann says he has known for a while that he will leave Gloucester at the end of the season.
The flanker joined the English club in 2017 after his father, Johan, was appointed head coach, and has gone on to make more than 170 appearances over the past eight years.
On 13 May, Gloucester announced that 19 players, including Ackermann, would depart the club.
“I’m getting to a stage now in my life where there was a feeling from the club and me that I feel I needed to go,” he said to BBC Radio Gloucestershire ahead of Gloucester’s last league-stage Premiership match against Northampton on Saturday.
“It’s more the reality sank in the last two, three months when you say to them, ‘I probably need to move on’. The club has got their ambitions and mine has changed a bit because of how things are going, and [you have to] try to accept it.”
Ackermann, who has not revealed who he will play for next season, had a poignant message for the Gloucester supporters.
“I always just wanted to get respect from the fans at Kingsholm. I feel they deserve a lot for the support they give,” he said. “All I can always do is make them proud and hopefully on the weekend we can have one more game at home where I can walk off and say I’ve given everything to them.”
Fifth-placed Gloucester need to beat Saints on Saturday, and hope other results go their way, to qualify for the Premiership semi-finals.
Photo: Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images
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Ruan Ackermann says he has known for a while that he will leave Gloucester at the end of the season.
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