Figures show 12,000 people nationally have lost their lives waiting for an organ transplant in the past decade.

With the need for a transplant more pressing, it was McDonald’s brother, Fraser, who stepped forward to donate a kidney after discovering he was an ideal match.

“I remember thinking: ‘let’s do this, I need to protect my younger brother’,” Fraser tells BBC Sport.

The McDonald brothers were raised in the Scottish coastal town of Carnoustie, famed for its golf course, where Fraser, a firefighter, still lives with his wife and children.

“Growing up, Kev and I were close,” he says. “Both of us were mad for football, there was a good bit of fighting [between us] but I’d say it was a close relationship.”

McDonald laughs when he recalls the childhood fights with his sibling.

“I’d try and tease him in front of his mates and he would batter me.

“I was really tall and skinny and, when it came to football, more technical. He was the opposite, running around the pitch, tackling and smashing people.”

McDonald’s kidney transplant took place at Guy’s Hospital, London, and was anything but straightforward.

Despite his brother being an ideal match, McDonald suffered a significant rejection and spent eight hours a day on a drip.

He was eventually discharged after 18 days but his worries were not over.

McDonald was soon released by Fulham, while wife Lucy was heavily pregnant with their first child, Layla.