Danny Cipriani's agent has scoffed at the suggestion that the England fly-half could be about to switch to football.
The former London Wasps man, who has signed to play Down Under for Melbourne Rebels next season, had kept fit by training with several round ball clubs in recent times, with London outfits Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers both letting him work with them.
Furthermore, this week saw him train with US outfit Colorado Rapids, whose official website published a story about it under the headline ‘Rugby to soccer?’ And in that piece a club spokesman was quoted as saying of Cipriani: "He is keen to explore opportunities in soccer in general and with the Rapids in particular."
However, the player’s publicist Caroline McAteer has rubbished such an idea and says that the pin-up player will be linking up with Melbourne later in the year.
"He's in regular contact with the Melbourne Rebels coaches and he's going out there by early October ready for pre-season training," she was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
"Danny wants to be super, super fit going out to Melbourne. The pressure will be on him out there now because there has been so much fuss made about this move. He has to arrive ready to go - that is why he is training so hard.
"He spent two weeks with Spurs, two weeks with QPR and an English guy he knows who coaches the team in Colorado invited him to join them for training, so he thought he would go. He'll be out there for a week or so, then he's coming back here for a few weeks before going to Australia.
"Let's face it, not many in this part of the world have heard of Colorado Rapids. If he was going to sign for an MLS team, I don't think it would be them. But it is not going to happen. He would have to cancel his contract with the Rebels and that's not even an option.
“He has signed the contract, he is going to Melbourne and he is excited about the move. All these rumours are part of the reason why he wants to go to Australia. He wants to get away from all this.”