South Sydney champion Nathan Merritt is vowing to fight to “stay alive as long as possible” after being diagnosed with stage-four cancer in two different forms.

The 42-year-old was first diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in November after reporting pain in his stomach.

Just four months later the father-of-five was hit with a second devastating blow, diagnosed with liver cancer in February.

Merritt says he is resolute on remaining positive as he fights for life, despite not knowing how long he has left.

“I’ve been diagnosed with stage four cancer — oesophagus and liver cancer,” Merritt told Daily Mail.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow for my kids and family. But it’s good — it’s going to be a tough one, but I’m going to fight through it.”

The Rabbitohs icon has only known for a matter of weeks that both cancers were at stage four.

“All of this treatment is now just about trying to maintain it with chemo, and doing my best to stay alive as long as possible,” he added.

South Sydney CEO Blake Solly said the club is throwing its support behind “a favourite son of our club”.

“It’s obviously terrible news in terms of the diagnosis, but we know that Nathan has immense courage and a fighting spirit,” Solly said in a statement.

“We’ll be there to support Nathan and his family as he battles through the next few months.’’

The shattering diagnosis completes a rocky few years for Merritt, who was put on life support after experiencing an adverse reaction to prescribed pain medication in October 2023.

In February last year Merritt was knocked to the ground and covered in blood after getting involved in a Sydney pub brawl, for which he later pleaded guilty to one count of affray.

Two months later he spent a night behind bars and was fined $1500 for blowing three times the legal limit of alcohol while driving.

Merritt retired in 2014 after 237 NRL games, including 218 for the Rabbitohs across two stints, and 19 for Cronulla.

He also suited up once for New South Wales, twice for the PM’s XIII and three times for the Indigenous All-Stars.

The winger held Souths’ try-scoring record for eight years until it was broken by Alex Johnston in 2022, and he was just the ninth player in history to score 150 or more career tries.

Before Merritt, Benny Wearing had held the Rabbitohs’ try-scoring record for 81 years.