Dan Biggar has sent a very personal message to Louis Rees-Zammit as his former Wales rugby team-mate returns to Britain with the NFL.

America’s favourite sport is in London for the next three Sundays, with Rees-Zammit’s Jacksonville Jaguars next up after tomorrow’s opener between the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings.

The Gloucester wing turned Jags wide receiver has ridden an emotional rollercoaster since switching sports and being signed in a blaze of publicity, then unceremoniously cut, by Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs.

After what was his first ever gridiron game in August opinion on social media was sharply divided between those wanting the best for him and others saying he was out of his depth.

There then followed Chiefs’ hammer blow decision not to include him in their 53-man squad for the regular season, prompting Rees-Zammit to move to Florida, lured by the prospect of playing at receiver rather than running back.

The 23-year-old’s homecoming is only in a back-up role with the Jags’ practise squad, who will prepare the winless franchise for games against Chicago Bears, at Tottenham on October 13, and New England Patriots, at Wembley Stadium a week later.

But he will arrive back to words of overwhelming support from Biggar, with the British and Irish Lions star revealing the very personal reason for his backing of the Penarth-born flier.

Full of admiration for Rees-Zammit

Biggar said: “I admire 100 percent Louis for what he is doing and I’ll tell you why. When I was 21 or 22 I had a conversation with Racing 92 and almost signed.

“I didn’t go through with it because I was scared to go and live in Paris. It was too far out of my comfort zone.

“The fact Louis is 23 and he’s chosen to go to a different sport, never mind a different country, and put everything on the line I think is brilliant. I so respect him for that.”

Rees-Zammit’s Chiefs pre-season saw him thrown into a bit of everything. He had seven touches for 25 yards and a tackle on special teams. He also took and received kick-offs.

Lawrence Dallaglio was among those to message and say how proud he was of the youngest ever British and Irish Lion. Not everyone, inevitably, was so kind.

Christian Wade highlights key factor Louis Rees-Zammit must master to succeed in NFL

“We keep saying we want characters, we want people to be out there and back themselves,” said Biggar, whose autobiography The Biggar Picture: My Life In Rugby, is newly published by Macmillan.

“The minute they do and it’s like they become an easy target. I think Louis should be really proud of himself, it is clearly a very tough sport to crack for anybody, let alone a foreigner coming in and a guy who only played his first game a month or so ago.

“I really hope it goes for him because he’s a top, top lad. I love the fact he’s not afraid to put himself out there, that he wants to be more than a rugby player.

“If he’s open enough to come out and say it and back himself, I think people should get behind it. It’s taken real balls to do it and he’s doing it with personality and character.

I really enjoyed my time with him

“What we do in this country in particular is we always want people to fall,” Biggar added. “We’re there to pile on the pressure when they do. He’s a great bloke, I really enjoyed my time with him. Good luck to him.”

Rees-Zammit, who touches down in the UK on Friday, refuses to contemplate failure and believes his prospects to develop, if not play for a winning team, are enhanced by his move.

“I think I’m much better off playing receiver with my size and strength,” said a player whose family have moved out to Jacksonville to share the experience. “I think that’s probably a position that suits me a lot more.

“It was a good experiment to try running back out at the Chiefs, but I think we all realised I would probably be a receiver eventually. I’m loving the role and am going to continue to improve.”

Biggar, whose Toulon side face Clermont on Sunday in the Top 14, feels Rees-Zammit is onto a winner whatever path he ends up following.

“The option to come back to rugby is always there for him,” Biggar said. “Even if he does another year after this one he will only be 25. That gives him probably another 10 years of rugby.

“But I guarantee he won’t be thinking like that.”

READ MORE: Louis Rees-Zammit issues blunt message to his ‘haters’ after Kansas City Chiefs snub