Partner Abby Sutherland gave birth’s to the couple’s first child, son Isaiah — Izzy for short — on October 26.

While the Brisbane Broncos winger was able to be home for the birth, he had to leave 48 hours later for the UK to re-join the New Zealand Test Squad.

This meant he had to resort to FaceTime to get his know his son in the first two-and-a-half weeks’ of his life.

“It was definitely tough, but it was obviously a sacrifice I had to make,” Isaako, 22, said.

“I was FaceTiming and calling whenever I could. But we got there in the end and I’m home now, so I’m really enjoying this time off and I’ll make the most of it before I have to go back to training.”

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Isaako — who this time last year was playing for Souths Logan in the Intrust Super Cup with one NRL game under his belt — was given leave by the New Zealand Rugby League to be with Sutherland when she gave birth.

He said he never imagined he’d be a Dally M Rookie of the Year winner juggling the birth of his first child with a New Zealand Test call up.

“To be Rookie of the Year and be able to represent my country at the same time, and this little guy topping off everything that’s happened this year, it’s just been a dream season for me,” Isaako said.

“He’s an inspiration for me now to do more and be bigger and better next year.

“I want to get back to training and work harder for him to grow up and see what I do. For me personally hopefully one day he can grow up and do the same thing if that’s the path he chooses.”

Sutherland, 27, who moved to Brisbane from Victoria, said her mother flew to Brisbane to help with the baby until Isaako returned.

“We obviously missed dad but we FaceTimed all the time. When it was during the night for us and I’d be awake for feeds we would FaceTime Jamayne because it was day time for him. We just made it work,” she said.

“He puts in a lot of behind the scenes work and he deserves all the praise he gets.”

A year ago the couple, who met via a mutual friend two years ago, had just moved to Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast and Isaako had signed a 12-month contract with the Brisbane Broncos with a goal to play “a handful of games”.

By the end of the year the Christchurch-born winger hadn’t missed a game for the Broncos, was crowned the 2018 Dally M Rookie of the Year and top pointscorer before getting a call up to the Kiwi Test Squad.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play in the NRL and to come away and have played every single game is a dream come true,” Isaako said.