Canterbury Bulldogs are close to signing James Graham, according to the Bulldogs' chief executive.
Eastmond return no closer
Canterbury Bulldogs are close to signing James Graham, with St Helens coach Royce Simmons resigned to losing the England prop at the end of the season.
Bulldogs chief executive Todd Greenberg told Australia's
Daily Telegraph: "We are still negotiating and hopefully we can get him. It's close but we haven't agreed yet."
Saints coach Royce Simmons, speaking after the Good Friday 28-24 defeat at Wigan, admitted: "I've spoken to him at length on many occasions trying to get him to stay.
"He loves this club. He'd love to pick this club up and drop it into the middle of the NRL for a year and have a go.
"He can't do that, so if the challenge is there burning away at him, you look him in the eyes and shake his hand and say 'go and do your best', don't you? You find it hard to make an argument.
"He's won a lot of things here - cups and man of steel - and he wants a bit of a challenge. If he decides to stay, well that's a big bonus for us."
Eastmond
Meanwhile, Saints' Bath-bound half-back Kyle Eastmond remains sidelined indefinitely with a chest infection.
"He hasn't been able to train for a week or so," said Simmons. "He came back in on Monday and the doctor said he didn't handle it well enough and should be in hospital. He got tests done and he hasn't got pneumonia.
"He had a light run yesterday and we tried to give him a hard 10 minutes this morning to see if he would be available for selection for the Castleford game on Monday, but he couldn't even do 10 minutes on the treadmill."
