Whitehaven forward Howard Hill has revealed he worried for his life after contracting a mysterious disease following a match at Leigh in August.

Hill was unconscious for over a week and also treated in intensive care after falling ill with a relatively unknown community-acquired disease.

"It has only been out since 2005 so they do not know much about it," Hill told BBC Radio Cumbria.

"A lot of the people who have it normally die, so I've been very lucky."

The second-rower has been out for over four months, and there is still no indication as to when he will return.

And Hill is happy to take his rehabilitation as slowly as it takes to give him the best possible chance of recovery.

"I'd lost two stone when I first came out of hospital and people said I looked like a scared rabbit, with my eyes were sticking out," he said.

"But now I'm back to 16 stone, but it's going in the wrong places because I can't train.

"But you've got to have something to aim for and that's what I aim for [a return] , I'm going to try to see how it goes but if I can't I can't and if I do, then I do.

"I can't wait to get off the sofa, it's killing me and I can't wait to get back into training."

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