Jonah Lomu faces life in a wheelchair if he does not get a kidney transplant, the former All Black said yesterday.

Lomu said in a television interview a relative had offered him a kidney but doctors had advised he was not a good donor.

"We are travelling down the road (transplant) with a relative but he has complications," the winger said, without spelling out the problem.

A nerve specialist told Lomu, who has trouble with his legs because of dialysis treatment, he might not walk again.

"He didn't put a time limit on it but that's what he said," Lomu said.

Lomu was told early in 1995, before he leapt to prominence at the World Cup in South Africa, that he had a chance of having kidney failure in the future.

"I had nine good years of playing rugby after being given that warning but I have some unfinished business and I will be giving my all to play again," Lomu said. "I want to finish on my own terms. The word impossible is nothing."

Lomu had to take most of 1997 off for treatment for his rare condition.

Lomu, who became the youngest New Zealand international at the age of 19 in 1994, played 63 tests for his country, scoring 37 tries.

Now Lomu undergoes dialysis six nights a week during sleep and side effects from the treatment have caused nerve damage, which he said mostly affected his feet but often moved up to his calves.

"I have a lot of steps to climb to get to my house and I can still climb them," Lomu said. "I try to monitor the difference every day and it's not getting any easier."