“I’m looking forward to being at home, being with my 4 and 5-year-old sons, and then spending time with my older step-kids,” Ritchie told the West Australian.

“There have been weekends where I got to go home and every week has just got harder and harder to come back to hospital. I’m finally there, so I can’t wait to go home.”

While he has been discharged from hospital, there is still a long road for full recovery.

“We are delighted to share that Peanut has been discharged from hospital,” Nedlands Rugby Club said on Facebook.

“The grit and determination he has shown is truly inspiring and we are behind him as he continues his rehabilitation as an outpatient.”

Ritchie’s parents were there for the occasion in what was an emotional moment, and his dad, David, felt he would eventually walk again one day.

“The prognosis was touch-and-go, but he always told me when he first started talking, ‘I’m going to walk out of here Dad’,” David Ritchie told the West Australian.

“I believed him as he’s always had a stubborn, strong-willed personality. It’s just going to be good to see him back with his kids. He mostly misses his boys.”

Ritchie was a former student at St Patrick’s Silverstream College and played rugby for Upper Hutt Rams before relocating.

A Givealittle page was set up after the injury and raised over $40,000 with donations from both New Zealand and Australia.

Ben Francis is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.