Sam Burgess hailed hero after saving choking man

South Sydney Rabbitohs star Sam Burgess has been labelled a "hero" after stepping in to help a man choking.

Former Bath flanker Burgess and his team-mates were at the Sydney Fish Market to partake in an eating contest.

A staff member from Decosti Seafood taking part in the challenge started to choke on a piece of food, but the quick-thinking Burgess reacted to help the person in difficulty.

A witness told of how Burgess eventually got the man to swallow the food to avoid a more serious outcome.

"The Souths boys were at work doing a fish-eating challenge and then one of the managers got involved," the witness told foxsports.com.au.

"They were eating and some seafood got caught in his throat and he started choking. Sam raced straight over and grabbed him and started putting his body weight on him to try and get it out.

"He was helping him for about 30 to 40 seconds and instead of spitting it out he ended up swallowing it, but if Sam hadn’t have helped it could have been bad.

"I'm telling you Sam is a hero."

Burgess played down the incident in a tweet, but the witness was adamant that the rugby player's intervention saved the man's life.

"He saved his life. Another 30 seconds and it could have gone either way.

"All the guys were amazing. Taking photos with people. Michael Maguire was great and I’m a Manly fan but it’s important people know what a great thing Sam did."