Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez broke his finger in the warm-up ahead of the Europa League final, but still went on to play the whole game.
The Villains won their first trophy for 30 years and by beating Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul on Wednesday night.
The match was lit up by stunning strikes from Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia, with Morgan Rogers finishing off the scoring just before the hour-mark.
It was ultimately a comfortable victory for Villa and Martinez will be very grateful for that after suffering a painful injury just before the game began.
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It was clear just before the start of the match that Martinez had hurt his hand as he was attended to by Villa’s goalkeeping coach and physio.
However, there was no suggestion that he had suffered anything as serious as a broken finger.
The World Cup winner did not let it get to him, keeping a clean sheet as he kept out Freiburg’s two shots on target.
Martinez was not holding back in the post-match celebrations either, picking up manager Unai Emery on his shoulders and diving into the crowd to join the travelling fans.
The goalkeeper said of the injury: ‘Should I be worried? Well, I’ve never had a broken finger before.
‘Every time I caught the ball, it went the other way. But these are things you have to go through, and I’m proud to defend Aston Villa.’
Emery, who has now won the Europa League five times with three different clubs, quickly turned to the future and how Villa are becoming a force domestically and in Europe.
‘I am myself ambitious and of course I need support,’ he told TNT Sports. ‘The owners, everyone that works in the club. The players, and they are following us. We are doing it together. But we must try to set this ambitious, being clear and realistic. Every step forward we are doing makes sense.
‘We are getting stronger. Development in everything. The club is working to extend the stadium by 10,000 people more. We are building and changing a little bit the training centre.
‘Next year we will play in Champions League and this is the challenge. The Premier League is the most difficult league in the world. To be fighting top seven, top five, top four is something very difficult. Hopefully we can be close with teams like City and Arsenal. Congratulations to them for this title.
‘It’s a huge challenge we have in Premier League. Why? In the beginning we are not contenders for top seven. There are top seven teams. Top six, and Newcastle is the seventh. And we are trying to get there. To try to be consistent there. We are achieving it. But of course to keep it is our challenge. And then, being there we are in Europe.
‘And getting this trophy we are adding experiences for us. And those experiences for the players are important. Because as well we can play next year trying as well to be in contention for trophies. Last year with the FA Cup and Champions League semis and quarter finals, we lost – experience for us. But we lost this match because we deserved it, because we didn’t deserve more against Crystal Palace. Today, I was ready to win, I was ready to lose. Experience for us. Of course, winning is better.’