Injury won't finish Smith's career: Agent
Manchester United midfielder Alan Smith has expressed his gratitude for the swift and largely sympathetic reaction from everyone at Anfield after he suffered a season-ending injury.
There were reports of taunts from sections of the Liverpool crowd when Smith went down during the FA Cup fifth-round tie yesterday after blocking a free-kick by John Arne Riise in the last minute of normal time.
It emerged that the England international had suffered a broken leg and a dislocated ankle, and required oxygen as he was treated on the pitch before being carried off on a stretcher.
He faces at least eight months on the sidelines, but agent Alex Black insists the player is in a positive frame of mind and was thankful for the support from the overwhelming majority of people present.
“I think Alan just wants to say that the treatment from Liverpool and all the Manchester United staff has been fantastic,” Black told BBC Radio Five Live.
“He was aware of what was going on to a certain degree and he just wanted to say thank you to everybody for that.”
He also said: “He was a little bit delirious as he was coming off but he was able to recognise that not just the Manchester United fans but a lot of the Liverpool fans were giving him a good round of applause.”
Black was adamant that although the injury looked horrific, Smith has the right mentality to make a full recovery.
“I spoke to Alan last night and he was in reasonably good spirits,” he added.
“As soon as Alan stays down for any injury, you know it is something quite serious. As they called everybody over you feared the worst and when you see the pictures it confirms it a little bit.
“He managed to stay in control of himself despite what must have been excruciating pain. What appears to have happened is when he dislocated his ankle, the force of that actually broke his leg just above his ankle as well.
“We’re hopeful that the pictures look a lot worse than (the injury) actually is. The two injuries individually are both serious but they’re not major, major injuries and can be treated in a relatively straightforward way, but the two together make it a long healing process for him.
“Certainly from what Alan has been told we’re not under the impression that it’s at all career-threatening. It will be a long process to come back but if anybody is going to come back from it, it’ll be Alan.
“He is tough, not just physically but mentally as well, so he has already started to talk about how quickly he can come back and get himself going again.
“He is having his operation this morning which will put him in a pot for six to eight weeks and then they'll know the extent of the damage to his ligaments as soon as it calms down.”
