Footy great Nathan Merritt clears up mystery over deadly ailment that left him in a coma for a week and forced him to learn to walk again: 'I'm lucky to be alive'

When South Sydney icon Nathan Merritt does a lap of Accor Stadium this weekend to celebrate the NRL's Indigenous Round, he will do so in the knowledge that he is extremely lucky to be alive.

Merritt was rushed to hospital and placed on life support when he was found unresponsive in his aunt's home on October 6, just one week after playing in the Koori Knockout rugby league carnival.

The terrifying medical episode saw him placed in a coma at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after an episode that was originally believed to have been triggered by an adverse reaction to prescribed painkillers.

Now the Bunnies legend has shown just how far he has come since then and revealed how close he came to dying from a debilitating bout of double pneumonia.

'I'd never heard of double pneumonia before, it's basically just a really bad round of it,' Merritt told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'I was at my Aunty's house and took a turn, I fell unconscious and woke up a week later in hospital.

'I can't remember anything about it and ended up having about six weeks in hospital. I was on life support and in a coma for at least a week of that, seven days or so and the week after I was in and out too.

'I was very dazed for a lot of it, especially when I first woke up and all the muscles in the right side of my body had shut down as well. So I had to build those back up and learn how to live again, do all those basic things.

'Learning to walk again, by the time I left hospital I could get into a decent walk again but that took a fair while, a few weeks there to get back to my normal self.

'Lucky to be alive, was what the doctors told me.'

Merritt will be give the honour of presenting the winner of the Eric Simms Medal for the annual clash between Souths and Parramatta at fulltime on Saturday.

It requires all of his energy, but he is happy to be back at the club he loves and grateful for every opportunity he is receiving. 

'It stopped me in my tracks for sure, but I'm just grateful, grateful to be breathing again,' he said.

'I've just been slowly getting back into life and just appreciating every day that I've got. Just being a father to my kids, that's what I'm focusing on and taking advantage of that. 

'I've got five: two 19-year-olds, a 15-year-old and two nine-year-olds.

'The support I had, it was pretty overwhelming. The hospital room was packed out a lot of the time when I was in there. I can't say how much I appreciate that support.

'I can't remember that first moment when I came to, I was in a different world, but I remember all the family with me.

'To be back at the club now and helping to hand out a medal with Eric Simms' name on it, he's one of the greats for this club and the game. That's a really special moment for me and I'm really looking forward to it.'

Souths fans will be hoping Merritt's appearance will lift the players with the club sitting at the bottom of the NRL ladder.

And while injured half Cody Walker will not be playing in the match, he said Merritt is sure to inspire the rest of the team. 

'To hear what happened to him and see him here after making a full recovery, it's unbelievable,' Walker said.

'He epitomises what Souths is about. He's a fighter, he was always in [the] game when he was playing, always floating around the footy, he broke records at the club.

'He had the hairstyle like Ronaldo the soccer player, he was just one of those players. I still remember the field goal he kicked that day at the SCG from the scrum line [delivering a last-second win over Wests Tigers in 2009], just crazy plays that not many could do.

'He's a local junior, grew up in Waterloo, and that's just what the club's about.'