FORMER Geelong and North Melbourne player Cameron Thurley has awoken from an induced coma, and is on the road to recovery.

Thurley, who played seven games for the Cats in 2005 and five for the Kangaroos the following year, has been in hospital with serious head injuries since falling down stairs at a Hobart nightclub on October 5.

Hobart newspaper The Mercury reports the 31-year-old has now emerged after 23 days in the coma, and is expected to make a slow but full recovery.

Thurley's father John told the newspaper an MRI scan had shown no major damage.

"He's got damage to his frontal lobe area but he'll get through that," John Thurley said.

"They are issues he can work through and they'll all be repaired.

"He's very weak, obviously, after 23 days, but he'll get stronger each day now and he'll face the issues as they arise."

Thurley is the captain of the Clarence Football Club in the Tasmanian state league.