SINGAPORE - When Tampines Rovers goalkeeper Syazwan Buhari took off his glove midway through his warm-up for last Saturday's (Nov 2) Komoco Motors Singapore Cup final, his first reaction was to curse and lament "why now?" to himself.

With barely half an hour to the kickoff of the Stags' most important game of the season, the custodian had suffered a freak injury during a shooting drill with goalkeeper coach William Phang.

"I've injured my fingers before and usually it is just a sprain and I could still move them," said Syazwan, 27. "This time, it was stiff, as though it was locked up, so I knew something was wrong."

He went behind the goalpost, removed the glove and saw his left pinkie bent almost 45 degrees in an unnatural direction.

"At that point, I was feeling so many things. Panic, anger, frustration," he recalled.

Despite the pain, he decided to play through it. His decision proved the right call as Tampines beat Warriors FC 4-3 in an enthralling game to claim their first piece of silverware since 2013.

To cap it off, Syazwan even saved a penalty from Warriors forward Sahil Suhaimi with four minutes remaining, even though Fairoz Hasan smashed home the rebound.

Pulling out from the game because of his gnarled finger was never a consideration, explained the shot-stopper.

"Firstly, it's a final. Secondly, if I could not play it would count as one substitution (because the first XI was already pencilled in).

"And seeing as we were playing our fifth game in 15 days, and considering the condition of our players, one substitution could make a big difference to the team," he said.

The match doctor had warned him that a routine save or landing on the injured finger could aggravate it but Syazwan still opted to have his finger popped back into place. He taped the finger, put on his glove, and then wrapped more tape, securing the ring and little finger together.

"I ended up making three saves, including the penalty, with that hand," he quipped.

Tampines coach Gavin Lee hailed his goalkeeper's heroics.

"Syazwan is a model pro, and not only is he a very good player, he's a very good person as well," said Lee, 29.

"When he made the decision to play through the pain, we trusted him, and to be honest during the game I didn't even think about his injury because I knew that if he said he could play, it meant he could.

"We were all very proud of him, and it was fantastic what he was able to do during the game."

The next day, Syazwan went to the accident and emergency department at Raffles Hospital where x-rays revealed a suspected fracture. He will return for another test later this week.

Whatever pain he endured was worth it, he said, as he now owns his first winners' medal in senior competitive football. Before this, he was part of the Singapore selection that won the Sultan of Selangor's Cup in 2016.

He said: "It makes my Singapore Cup win more memorable and sweeter, because it wasn't easy and I had to go through a lot to get my hands on that trophy."