Survivor's JT on the health scare that took him out of the game

JT decided to leave Survivor NZ after he came down with a bacterial infection. Photo / Scott McAulay

Survivor contestant JT says a bacterial infection that was growing "progressively worse" led to his surprise decision to quit during last night's episode.

"(It) couldn't be treated in the game," he says. "I was dehydrated the whole time, so I was just sort of laying there by myself. I wasn't really engaging with anyone for close to a week."

JT says the decision came down to the fact that he went into the game for himself, and once he fell ill, he no longer felt like he was playing the game properly.

"I went on for my own enjoyment, and at the point I left I wasn't playing, I was just existing," he says. "My thinking was, I wasn't gonna be able to physically continue and there was a broader risk of infection, of making it far more serious. The worst thing that I could have done was survived to the merge at the expense of someone else, and then be pulled early in the merge."

"At the point I left I wasn't playing, I was just existing," says JT. Photo / Scott McAulay

JT's ruthless gameplay and humourous attitude has earned him the respect of Survivor fans from all over the world - a reaction which he says made him reflect on his decision to leave.

"(There has) been such widespread adulation from some of the people in the fan community, which I never expected," he says. "I didn't think I'd be in the edit that much, so it's hard, when you see it back on TV, you only have the fun parts. You don't have the part of like, dealing with this infection, just lying listlessly in the shade near the well for eight hours a day."

Moving forward, JT says he's rooting for his original Chani tribemate Eve.

"She's been under-edited," he says. "She was playing awesome, it's a shame that it hasn't come through ... Eve was perhaps not great at expressing her strategy to camera, but she was really good."

JT says he's rooting for his original Chani tribemate Eve, right. Photo / Scott McAulay

JT says the way this season of Survivor has played out has a lot to do with the way Kiwis perceive strength.

"There is a very consistent theme of perceptions ... and I think that goes for the way some people have been perceived as 'strong players', and someone like Eve, who I see as being good across all aspects of the game, has been not perceived as a 'strong player'."

In regards to discussions that sexism may have had something to do with the early eliminations of several strong female characters, JT says it comes back to our ideas of strength. "What New Zealand defines in our culture as strength, I have an issue with that," he says. "It's very arbitrary for me."