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A year ago this weekend, Alan Smith suffered a horrific injury that has limited him to just two first-team starts since.
As a second-half substitute against Liverpool in the FA Cup on 18 February at Anfield, Smith blocked a shot from John Arne Riise, which broke his leg and dislocated his ankle. The 26-year-old striker hasn’t played for the Reds since getting a 60-minute run-out in the defeat to Southend in the Carling Cup at the start of November.
Smith has been on an intensive fitness programme to get his fitness levels back up. Described as “terrific” in training, Sir Alex Ferguson would have no qualms about throwing the striker back into action against Reading on Saturday – but says the Yorkshireman may just have to be a bit more patient in getting back into the team.
“I could play him against Reading no problem," said Sir Alex. "But the difficulty of course is the form of the team and that I have so many players playing so well. I’m trying to be fair to everyone, but it is hard. All I can say is that he is improving all the time, he has been terrific in training.
“I’m thinking that when Henrik Larsson goes back to Helsingborg in March, Alan could become a very important player to us. I think he sees that himself, and hopefully that is the case.
“It's just a matter of getting his timing and his confidence back again,” added the boss. “He's coming along fine. He's been in the squad over the last few weeks but the team is picking itself at the moment and when everyone is fit it's difficult even to pick the subs.”
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楼主
发表于 2007-2-18 00:33
