A few weeks after being born, Vukovic’s first born son, Harley, was diagnosed with a rare liver disease called biliary atresia.

Australia has some of the world’s highest organ transplant success rates, but, for almost two decades’ organ donation rates have been among the lowest in the developed world.

Subsequently Vukovic has joined up with organ donation week to promote awareness around this issue.

“One in three Australian adults are organ donors,” he said.

“A lot of people probably consider themselves as organ donors or would want to be organ donors but don’t know whether or not they are. Organ donation awareness week is about getting awareness around the cause and if people want to be organ donors it’s really easy to register.

“Basically the message for those people is sign up - it’s the ultimate gift that you can be giving families in Australia.

The news that Harley was going to need a liver transplant was delivered to Vukovic’s family just before Christmas last year.

The former Olyroo revealed that having to play in the previous A-League campaign took a toll on his young family and making the move to Sydney FC in the offseason was to alleviate some of the burden off his wife Kristy.

“It’s the major reason for wanting to go home,” he said.

“It was difficult in Melbourne. We had a lot of support from the club and Melbourne Victory and I had a lot of support from my teammates but the unfortunate thing is every time we’d go to travel to an away game or travel to Asia when we were playing in the Asian Champions League I had to leave a sick son and my wife behind to look after him.

“Here in Sydney we’ve got both our families. Both my parents and wife’s parents and our extended family so I know I can go away to games and not leave my wife behind by herself and that is certainly a worry off my mind and we know we got that help around us when we need it.”

Even though Harley - who is now 17-months old - is on the organ donor list hoping for a new lifesaving liver, Vukovic is still seeing the positive aspect of his situation.

“Look it is very difficult,” he said.

“But at the same time we got a beautiful little boy for the most part who is very happy and has brought so much joy to my life and my wife’s and my whole family.

“So in many ways it’s been difficult but it’s been the best time of my life. I finally met my first son, we’ve got a few hurdles that we need to overcome but we have a lot of hope and we are going to do everything we can to get our son better.”

If you are interested in being an organ donor, please go to this website