It's been a good week for 24-year-old Tim Cahill. On Tuesday he won his first cap for Australia in their friendly against South Africa at Loftus Road, while yesterday he was in the right place at the right time to shoot Millwall into their first-ever FA Cup Final - against Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium on 22 May.

However, it has not been all plain sailing for the former Sydney United player, who in 1997 left his homeland to fulfil a dream of making it as a professional footballer in this country.

His father, who was born in Dagenham and is a Lions supporter himself, took out a loan to help fund the 12,000 mile trip after Cahill decided to leave school at 16, determined to become a footballer. After scoring the decisive goal on Sunday he said: "It is nice to repay my family with a day like this. It’s nothing to do with the money but the emotion. I appreciate the chance they took for me."

But the hugely promising midfield player is lucky to be playing at all, having ruptured anterior ligaments in his knee while playing against Brighton & Hove Albion in the season before last.

"I heard a click and went down," he said. "Initially, I thought it would just be a month. But now I have an artificial ligament following surgery. It’s hard to believe that seven months ago I was still icing my knee every day," before adding in a typically forthright Aussie way: "But I was determined it wouldn’t get in the way."

And, having seen team-mate Richard Sadlier’s career at the New Den ended because of injury, Cahill simply counts himself "lucky" to be playing again at all.

Yet, with over 50 career goals to his name for the Lions, including five in his last five games, and three in Millwall’s remarkable run to The Final, Cahill has certainly made quite an impression since swapping Sydney for South-East London seven years ago.