Former Everton physio Mick Rathbone says Tim Cahill was in tears when he first signed for the club.

Cahill left Everton last week for New York Red Bulls.

He had chased his dream of becoming a player and flown to England from his native Australia to win a contract with Millwall in 1997.

Rathbone told evertonfc.com: "My first experience of Tim was doing his medical and spending the day with him. He was very emotional and even had tears in his eyes when it went through.

"I'm as cynical as anyone about modern footballers but he meant it.

"He had broken his foot and done a cruciate at Millwall so it was an arduous medical. I even missed my first and only game as head of medicine at Everton because we were still working with Tim.

"In this era when football is a business I never think Tim lost that magic of being like a kid and loving being at Everton. Every day he brought that into the training ground.

"I got a chance to spend time with him twice in his home city of Sydney after he had suffered a broken foot while at Everton, and he treated me brilliantly.

"He was the type to go out of his way for you and made me feel included and part of his family in Australia. He got me a lovely Christmas present one year from Harrods - he is a generous guy."