The Australia midfielder dedicated his goal in the 2-1 Europa League victory over BATE Borisov to those affected by the disaster but he plans to go further.

Cahill, born in Sydney to a Samoan mother and who represented Western Samoa at under-20 level as a 14-year-old, has been affected personally and wants to do all he can to help.

"The tsunami in Samoa affected the village where my family comes from, which is a place that's very close to my heart," he said.

"I go back there quite a lot and help the kids with shoes, clothes, kit and things like that. I've done some soccer clinics there.

"It has hit me very hard because I believe so much in family values and origins.

"Some people are now staying in tents with plastic sheets over the top of them - they're just trying to deal with it and they are trying to arrange a mass funeral for all the people who have died.

"I will start some sort of appeal. I am working on something now, which might take a bit of time, to try to help.

"I've got some great sponsors in Australia and a lot of people there want to help out.

"When I first heard about all this I didn't realise how big and how bad it was but when I did I was determined straight away to try to do something.

"If I could leave training for a week and do some aid work, I'd do it but obviously I can't do that.

"However, I can put people in place to help but it's not something that will happen overnight."