Avoiding drop is so vital to Curran

Dark Blues midfielder puts contract talks and international career on back-burner

A possible new contract with Dundee and a possible international career with the Philippines have both been put on the back-burner by Jesse Curran.

For the Dark Blues midfielder, the Dens Park side’s relegation battle is commanding his full attention.

Curran is one of the few players getting a regular game who were not signed by Jim Mcintyre.

He has clearly made a good impression with his club manager – hopefully enough to be offered a fresh deal at the end of the campaign.

And Sven Goran Eriksson has not given up hope of persuading him to commit to the Philippines.

Curran, though, will not let himself be distracted from the short-term task of keeping Dundee in the Premiership – starting with today’s clash with Hearts.

“This is the last year of my contract but I am not thinking about that,” he said.

“We need to make sure we’re safe first. It’s about the team and keeping the club up.

“We haven’t had talks yet. It’s too important and nothing will happen until the end of the season.

“I have been in this situation before. It was the same last year and I handled it well.

“I’m not one to stress out about things. I will just keep focused on the football and see what happens.

“I signed four years ago and it has flown by.”

On the prospect of playing for the country of his mother’s birth, Curran added: “I have heard from Sven Goran Eriksson again. They have a camp in a few weeks in Bangkok but I can’t make it.

“We have too many important games here so I want to stay here and focus on Dundee.

“There is another one in June, so I think I will go to that to meet him, the coaching staff and the players.

“I will see what they’re saying about it. They have been very good and know how important it is for me to focus on Dundee right now.”

It has taken a while but Curran has finally made the Dundee “breakthrough”.