Bronson Xerri has been granted an additional 24 hours to determine if he will fight a four-year ban after the Cronulla NRL centre tested positive to anabolic steroids.

The 19-year-old was handed a breach notice by the NRL last Tuesday and given a week to respond, with that deadline now extended another day.

Xerri, who was stood down before the season for a positive drug test, needs to decide if he intends to plead his case of alleged steroid-use to the NRL Anti-Doping Tribunal.

Xerri has been suspended from playing since May after he tested positive and had been awaiting the results of his B-sample.

Those results arrived earlier this month and concluded that Xerri’s B-sample has also tested positive to a number of banned substances, including testosterone, androsterone and etiocholanolone.

All are prohibited by WADA and the NRL’s anti-doping policy.

He was originally tested in November last year, with his positive result taking six months to be received by the NRL and Cronulla.

Xerri did not play the opening two games of the season for the Sharks as he recovered from shoulder surgery.