Essendon forward Orazio Fantasia has denied he will seek an AFL trade back to his native SA at the end of this season.

The AFL website has reported that although Fantasia signed a two-year deal last August, he had indicated a wish for a trade.

Asked late on Wednesday afternoon if he would try to break his contract and head to either Port Adelaide or Adelaide later this year, Fantasia told reporters “no”.

“I read that today, it was a bit of a laugh,” he said.

“I signed last year in August, so I’m pretty sure that shows my commitment to this football club.

“It doesn’t annoy me, it’s pretty funny … we came out of a meeting and the boys were (saying) ‘you’re going are you?’, so it was a bit of fun.”

Injuries have restricted the livewire Bombers forward to nine games this season, for a career total of 69.