Smith out for year after op

MANCHESTER UNITED have declared surgery on Alan Smith’s horror injury to be ‘a success’.

Smith is facing the possibility of 12 months on the sidelines after breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle in a freakish manner as he tried to block John Arne Riise’s free-kick late in United’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool at Anfield yesterday.

The severity of the injury and the shocked reaction of players raised comparisons with the career-ending injury suffered by Coventry defender David Busst at Old Trafford in 1996.