There have been times over the last year when Alan Smith has cut a sorry figure, sitting alone in the stand at Old Trafford, watching his Manchester United colleagues doing just fine without him and wondering when, or maybe if, he would ever get a chance again. It has been a tortuous, sometimes torturous, rehabilitation for the forward after snapping his leg like a bar of seaside rock at Liverpool 14 months ago, but he is finally entitled to think the nightmare is over.

Smith played a pivotal role in United's 7-1 rout of Roma in the Champions League last week and was instrumental again in the 4-1 defeat of Watford in the FA Cup semi-final. Tonight he is expected to make his first Premiership start of the season, when Sheffield United cross the Pennines to Manchester, and Smith seems fully over what he described as the toughest period of his career "mentally as well as physically".

The road to recovery has been anything but straightforward. The photographs of Smith lying on the Anfield turf, his ankle jutting out of his sock like a broken cricket stump, are still vivid and when the 26-year-old made his comeback in the Carling Cup games at Crewe and Southend last autumn it was obvious the injury might have taken more out of him than he and Alex Ferguson had anticipated.

"I knew myself that I was miles off," Smith recalls. "I came off after 55 minutes against Southend and after that it was a case of going back to the drawing board and working hard. Since then I've just been waiting for the opportunity."

He had to wait until mid-March before returning to the starting XI in the FA Cup quarter-final replay against Middlesbrough and after another three weeks out, his was a shock inclusion against Roma.

"The biggest thing for me over the last week has been the gaffer's belief in me," Smith says. "To put me in against Roma and to have faith in me to do well in a massive game, that was everything that I'd hoped for.

"It has only been two games so I'm not going to get carried away. I'm still a bit short and I've got a fair bit to do to get back to my best. But I feel good and I'm playing football with a smile on my face again, which has been quite difficult for me at times. I had one leg this time last year but I was always confident I would be back. As soon as it happened I spoke to the gaffer and said, 'It's done, let's put it to one side and work hard to get rehab and get back fit'. That was my attitude.

"Even when the gaffer called me in just after Christmas and said he had a list of clubs wanting to take me on loan I said, 'I'm not going, it's as simple as that.' He said it was a chance to play regularly in the Premiership, but I'd done that before and I knew I could do it. That's never been in question, as far as I'm concerned.

"I wanted to stay at United and put myself in the gaffer's thoughts and it was the right thing to do. It's games like Saturday and last Tuesday night that you want to be involved in - and you can't get that anywhere else other than the top-three clubs."

The bad news for Smith is that if United hold off Chelsea to win the title he will not have played the requisite number of games to qualify for a medal. There is, however, the prospect of an FA Cup final and a possible Champions League final to come, and the forward maintains he is relieved he turned down the chance to leave Old Trafford when there were a dozen clubs trying to tempt him away.

Carlos Queiroz, the Manchester United assistant manager, has revised his terms of contract to bring him in line with Ferguson on a year-long rolling deal. There had been speculation in the Portuguese press that the former Real Madrid manager wanted to leave his options open this summer. But United confirmed yesterday Queiroz had negotiated new terms.

A scan has revealed Rio Ferdinand's thigh injury is not serious but he is not expected to be risked against Sheffield United tonight.

John O'Shea is doubtful and, with Nemanja Vidic also sidelined, 18-year-old Craig Cathcart may be handed a first-team debut.

Guardian Service