Beloved Australian television presenter John ‘Burgo’ Burgess has been admitted to hospital with a bacterial infection.

The former Burgo’s Catch Phrase host was taken to the Intensive Care Unit of the Royal Perth Hospital on Wednesday night, February 2.

It’s believed the 78-year-old is in a stable condition with his wife by his side.

Burgess’s manager Evan Broadway told The West Australian newspaper that the iconic television host is expected to leave hospital on Friday and was still keen to work despite his illness. ​He is currently a radio presenter with Perth station 6iX.

“He wanted to work Saturday, and we said ‘nah mate have the weekend off, just take the day off,’” he said.

“But that’s just how loyal he is to his listeners.”

Burgess is best known for his long-running stint as presenter of the popular game show Wheel of Fortune alongside Adriana Xenides from 1984 to 1996. He later hosted the Australian version of Catchphrase for channel Nine, later renamed Burgo’s Catch Phrase.

Sadly, Xenides passed away in 2010 at the age of 54 after suffering a ruptured intestine. Burgess recently opened up to news.com.au about the final moments he spent with his former colleague in a rare interview. The TV legend rushed to be by Xenides’s side after she was admitted to hospital and fell into a coma, following an early morning message from a family member saying she was in a coma and wasn’t expected to survive beyond a few hours.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.

“We went straight up to the hospital and sat with her, she was in a coma. She just looked awful, it was heartbreaking… My wife said that when I leaned over and said, ‘Burgo is here, Adri’, she said her eyes opened briefly. But I didn’t see it, I was too busy bawling.

“It was just awful to see her. I hardly recognised her, it was awful. “I think it was about quarter past four in the afternoon we left the hospital, and she died half an hour later.”