Fresh health setback for Cairns

New Zealand cricket great Chris Cairns revealed Saturday he has suffered a further health setback and has been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

Cairns was only discharged from hospital last week, five months after he underwent a life-saving heart operation and was then paralysed by a subsequent stroke.

"Another fight ahead but here's hoping this one is a swift upper cut and over in the first round," the 51-year-old, one of the world's top all-rounders in the early 2000s, said on social media.

"I was told yesterday I have bowel cancer... big shock and not what I was expecting.

"So, as I prepare for another round of conversations with surgeons and specialists, I keep remembering how lucky I am to be here in the first place."