A third ex-Collingwood player has spoken about his shock exit from the club, telling fans he “wanted to stay”.

Atu Bosenavulagi was offloaded as part of the highly publicised Jaidyn Stephenson move to North Melbourne after managing three games for the Pies.

Speaking to SEN, Bosenavulagi said his future was up in the air at Collingwood with no new deal offered.

“I got offered to play at North a month before the trade,” he revealed.

“I had a few weeks to think and Collingwood hadn’t offered me a contract yet, so I was up in the air.

“I wanted to stay ... at the end I chose what was best for me.

“I obviously wanted to get more of a run and I thought I’d have more of a chance if I went to North.”

Stephenson has widely spoken about how he was forced to call coach Nathan Buckley to try and find out if the trade rumours were true.

But Bosenavulagi says he enjoyed his two years at Collingwood after arriving as pick 77 in the 2018 Draft.

“It was obviously hard to get your spot and keep your spot in the team,” the Fijian said.

“But it was definitely a great experience for me.

“I learnt a lot professionally from the leaders like Scott Pendlebury and those guys who really helped me a lot and developed myself on and off the field.”

The forward is set to compete for Ben Brown’s vacant role at the Kangaroos in 2021, and said he is looking forward to the challenge.

“Seeing North having a lot of young players and good leadership there I just thought I’d like to be a part of it,” he said.

“I definitely want to show what I can do so I guess that’s why I took the opportunity to go to North.”