The family of an Irish man who has been left unrecognisable after a brutal attack in Sydney have made an emergency dash to his hospital bedside.

The parents and sister of 29-year-old David Keohane flew from their home in County Cork in Ireland to maintain a vigil at his side after he was attacked so severely while on his way home from a party that he needed facial reconstructive surgery.

Mr Keohane was walking home from a party on August 9 when he stopped to buy a pizza in the Sydney beachside suburb of Coogee, a popular area for British tourists. He was leaving the pizza parlour when he was attacked and left for dead on the footpath shortly before 3 a.m.

"He’s obviously walked into something, person or persons, and a savage and brutal and cowardly attack occurred,” Detective Inspector Paul Pisanos told a press conference yesterday. "He was basically left in a grave condition on the footpath.”

As Mr Keohane remained in hospital on life support, his family,Tom and Rita Keohane and their daughter Carol, made an emotional plea to the public, appealing for anyone who knew what had happened to come forward.

"Anybody who saw anything suspicious would they please come forward, no matter how small the detail is, to the police,” a tearful Mr Keohane said. ''... So that they can try and catch the people who did this to our son.''

David, who is a permanent resident of Australia, moved to Sydney four years ago to set up a flooring business. He volunteered as a telephone counsellor for the charity service Lifeline.

He had just returned to Sydney from a trip back to Ireland to visit his family and friends when he was attacked.

“This happened two days after he came home (to Sydney),'' Mr Keohane said.

“His mother got a text about five or six hours before he was attacked saying he was at a party having a great time.''

Mrs Keohane said David, a rugby fan, has no criminal record, never smoked, drank only occasionally, and is “a very good son” who was simply in “the wrong place at the wrong time” when he was attacked.

"They need to be taken off the street," Mrs Keohane said of her son's attackers.

“It is really heart-breaking to see your son lying there in that condition. We are hoping and praying he will recover sufficiently to one day be able to travel home with us.”

David remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital. Police in NSW have said investigations into the assault are continuing and have asked for anyone with information to come foward.

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