GENEVA (AP) - A Portuguese soccer player who lost his finger while celebrating a goal for his Swiss club Servette wants to forget the grisly incident as soon as possible.
Paolo Diogo, 29, caught his wedding ring on perimeter fencing while celebrating a late goal in Sunday's match which put his struggling Geneva side 4-1 ahead against Schaffhausen. The ring ripped off the top of his finger.
"When I jumped down from the fence, I didn't feel anything at all," Diogo told the Swiss daily Blick on Wednesday. "The first time that I noticed that something was missing from my hand was when is started to hurt. And it hurt tremendously."
Before he noticed the injury, the unlucky player picked up a booking from referee Florian Etter for excessive celebration.
Although club officials found the missing finger, surgeons were unable to reattach it and recommended that the stump be amputated.
"First I talked to my wife and then with our club doctor," Diogo said. "Then finally I saw that amputation was for the best."
Diogo said he was philosophical.
"I'm not dead and life goes on. So I have to live with one less finger."
