Josh Dugan has backed Jarryd Hayne to make it in the NFL but the St George Illawarra star has played down the likelihood of following him to the US and is more focused on switching positions than codes.
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Dugan, who is recovering from neck surgery, has previously spoken of his interest in playing NFL but the NSW Origin fullback revealed on Friday that he was currently in discussions to extend his contract with the Dragons beyond 2017.
"I am signed for two years until the end of 2017 and then I am looking to extend so I will be here for the next few years," Dugan told Fairfax Media. "If I was to get paid I would go over but it would be me going over on my own back and I would be forking out a lot of cash.
"Haynesy got deals with Telstra and all of that sort of stuff so he was still getting an income, but I would have to go over on my own coin."
Despite Hayne's demotion to the San Francisco 49ers practice squad, Dugan believes he should continue to pursue his NFL dream and ignore approaches to return to the NRL. "I think it is a good thing for him, not having that experience, it could only go one way, so being put in the practice squad gives him a chance to develop," Dugan said.
"It obviously means that the club has high hopes for him, too, because they are putting that time and effort and money into him to develop him. If everything goes to plan I can't see why he couldn't be full time next year after 12 months in the game learning everything and learning it right."
In Hayne's absence, Dugan has made the Blues No.1 jersey his own but the 25-year-old is keen to play in the centres again and has spoken to St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor about the switch.
However, the move will only occur if McGregor believes the team will benefit by Dugan playing in the centres, as he did for NSW and the Dragons in 2014. "I have a desire to play centre; I have spoken to Mary over the last year about it and we have a couple of good players coming through that could slot into fullback," he said. "I felt like I only touched the surface playing centre in 2014 so I feel like I can improve a lot, it was exciting playing there and I loved playing there. If I was to be picked there again, I would grab it with both hands.
"But for me it is just about playing wherever the team needs me and if I play fullback again it wouldn't bother me; I played a full season there for the Dragons and I played three Origins there last year so it is something we will talk about more after Christmas."
By then Dugan hopes to be back in full contact training after recovering from a neck operation in which surgeons shaved two of his vertebrae to relieve a nerve problem that was causing numbness in his fingers.
Dugan first began feeling pain in his neck and shoulders last year but the injury intensified after this season's opening game and he often struggled to finish games or train with the team between matches. "Three of my vertebrae were pushing on each other and they were pushing on my disc, which was then pushing on the nerve," he said. "I would get constant aching in my shoulder and in my neck, and there were times I would get tingling down my arm and numbness in my fingers.
"It started last year, there were times I would get burners in my shoulders and that sort of thing but pretty much since round one it has just been gradually getting worse and worse.
"I didn't want to go through that again next year so I wanted to get on top of it and I can already feel the difference.
