Sione Vaiomounga, the Tongan player who was stranded in Romania, is recovering well in hospital after undergoing a kidney transplant, which came as a direct result of The Daily Telegraph covering his plight.

In December, The Telegraph reported on how Vaiomounga had suffered a kidney failure while playing professional rugby in Romania that left him dependent on dialysis support.

His visa was due to run out in March and deportation would have been an effective death sentence as Tongan hospitals do not possess the dialysis technology Vaiomounga needed to survive.

Yet thanks to the generosity of Telegraph readers and the wider rugby family more than £30,000 was raised in an appeal by the Pacific Rugby Players Welfare for Vaiomounga and his young family.

According to Dan Leo, the head of the PRPW, that funding allowed the Romanian government to extend his visa and on Tuesday Vaiomounga was told that he had been fast-tracked to receive a kidney transplant.