Former Springbok skipper and Rugby World Cup-winning scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen has been told he may only have a couple of years to live after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Doctors have suspected since May that the 40-year-old suffered from a motor neuron disease.

After visiting Erik Pioro, a neuromuscular specialist in Cleveland, Ohio, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, The Beeld newspaper said.

"Dr Pioro confirmed that Joost does indeed suffer from ALS, which gives him an 80 per cent chance to live between two and five years," Van der Westhuizen's South African doctor Jody Pearl told the paper.

The disease is incurable and almost always fatal. The illness gradually leads to paralysis, speech and swallowing difficulties and problems with breathing.

Sufferers usually die within three to five years. British scientist Stephen Hawking is one of the more famous people with the disease, which strikes one to three people out of every 100,000.

Van der Westhuizen shares the record as leading try scorer for South Africa with winger Bryan Habana (38) and also captained the 1999 World Cup team, retiring after playing in the 2003 tournament.

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