Danny Care insists he remains fully focused on rugby despite his growing profile in the broadcast media.
The Harlequins scrum-half is England’s eighth most-capped player but has not added to his 84 caps in more than a year.
In that time he has become a regular voice on national radio, co-hosting 5 Live’s popular Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
Care, 33, makes no secret of his desire to build a career in the media when he hangs up his boots.
But with 18 months left on his club contact he is frustrated that some are questioning his commitment to the sport he has lit up for more than a decade.
“It’s hard,” he admitted ahead of his 270th appearance for Quins on Friday at Bath where the Londoners aim to use the Champions Cup dead rubber to “right the wrongs” of last week's 48-point stuffing at Sale.
“People see you in the media and think you’re not as focused as you should be, yet if you’re off doing a uni degree course it’s great because you’re looking at what you want to do in the future.
“For me the media is something I really enjoy, I love doing the podcast, I love watching and talking about rugby, so that is something I’d like to get into. But I think some people think you’re not paying as much attention to your (rugby).
“It’s obviously hard when you’ve lost by 40 points away at Sale and I’m on the pod the next day and everyone’s like ‘get on the training park’.
“I’m doing both. I’m trying my best. My main job is a rugby player but obviously I know it doesn’t last forever.”
Care missed out on the World Cup partly because Eddie Jones chose to take only two scrum-halves to Japan. But his passion for the game remains.
“As a kid I dreamt of playing for England and as a father of two I dream of playing for England again,” he said. “I still feel I can offer something. I’m enjoying my rugby this year more than I have in a long time.”
At Bath, where Kyle Sinckler returns from injury and Joe Marler makes his 200th Quins appearance, Care knows injury-plagued Quins must deliver a performance.
“There’s no hiding away from last Friday,” he said. “It happened, it was awful, we were bad. But that can happen this year in the Premiership.
“If you’re not quite on it against a team that click on the day you can get your pants pulled down. It’s up to us to show that that was an anomaly.”
