Fury over Everton footballer Tim Cahill's on-pitch gesture of solidarity with thug brother who left a man blinded

He explained after Sunday's game that it was a gesture of support for his brother Sean, who is serving a jail sentence.

"I am just proud that he is happy and I am happy and I'm thinking of him always," said the Australian international.

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Yesterday, however, it emerged that his words glossed over the reality a vicious and cowardly attack which has shattered the lives of the victim and his family.

C hristopher Stapley, 31, lost the sight in one eye when 29-year-old Sean Cahill kicked him twice in the face as he lay defenceless on the pavement after an unprovoked attack in July 2004.

The quantity surveyor went through a long, painful and ultimately unsuccessful course of treatment and now fears that complications could leave him totally blind at any time.

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To make his ordeal worse, he had to wait three years for Cahill to be brought to justice - the thug jumped bail and fled back to Australia.

It was only last November that he was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and jailed for six years.

Mr Stapley, who had suffered deep depression, has now moved to the U.S. to seek a new life.

His family are praying he will not hear about Tim Cahill's "celebration".

Detective Constable Will Hope of the Metropolitan Police, who investigated the attack, said last night: "It's very sad that this case has been brought to the attention of the public in such a way.

"The brutal act out by Sean Cahill changed the life of a young man forever, so much so that he has had to move away from the family he loves to try and get on with his life.

"As a sports star in the public eye, Tim Cahill's actions are grossly irresponsible.

"Celebrating his goal in such a way seemingly endorses the actions of his brother.

"What sort of a message does it send to the impressionable younger generation?"

Sean Cahill's trial at Croydon Crown Court heard he had been drinking with friends from the world of football before he was caught on CCTV in Bromley, South East London, punching several of Mr Stapley's friends and then kicking him.

He was swiftly arrested and charged but jumped bail and fled to Sydney.

He was arrested on an international warrant last March and extradited soon afterwards.

Even though his victim's hair, blood and flesh had been found on his shoe, Cahill brazenly denied his guilt to the end.

In a moving impact statement to the court, Mr Stapley said the agony of the initial assault was only the beginning of his suffering.

He described an operation in which a surgeon attempted to repair the damage to his eye with a transplant of retinal cells.

He said: "The post-operative regime was arduous to say the least.

"I had to lie in a horizontal position, face down, for between four and six weeks.

"I was allowed to get up only to eat, go to the toilet or wash and these had to be done quickly.

"I was pretty much confined face down on my bed for this whole period."

He said he became depressed, rarely went out and was frightened by any conflict. Life had never been the same again.

Mr Stapley's mother Pamela, 55, said at the family home in Orpington, South East London last night: "We just want to move on. Chris doesn't know about what happened on the football field and I don't want him to."

Asked how she felt about Sean Cahill being depicted as a martyr by his brother, she said simply: "That is for the Cahill family."

An Everton spokesman denied that Cahill's celebration had been inappropriate, but admitted: "I am sure Tim was fully aware that some people would not be in favour of what he did before he did it".