Fitness comes first for Chris

Jul 1 2009

STRICKEN stopper Chris Smith last night admitted he can’t even begin to think about challenging new boy Paul Gallacher for the number one jersey at St Mirren until he has recovered from his horror knee injury.

‘Smudger’ will today fly down to London to meet Harley Street specialist Dr Andrew Williams for an update on how his reconstructed left knee is progressing.

It has been exactly three months since 23-year-old goalkeeper Smith underwent painful surgery to implant a new cruciate ligament and repair the lateral ligament in the same knee.

And today’s meeting with the highly-respected surgeon, who has also been advising Rangers star Kevin Thomson on his comeback from a cruciate knee injury, will determine when Smith can begin his long road to recovery.

As a result, Smudger isn’t even contemplating a contest with new signing Gallacher, who signed a two-year deal with Saints earlier this week.

Smith told Express Sports: "I actually met Paul on Monday at the club and he’s a great goalkeeper but there is no point thinking about challenging him just now because I have to get back playing football first and foremost, never mind having to challenge somebody for the gloves.

"I just hope my meeting with the doctor goes well and there’s a wee chink of light at the end of the tunnel and, hopefully, I can start to kick on a bit.

"I’ve been off the crutches for around eight weeks now and I’ve done a bit of cycling already, so everything is encouraging.

"Now I need to speak to the surgeon to find out what he says because it has been three months since I had my operation.

"Hopefully, he’ll tell me things are progressing well and I can crank up my rehab a bit."

Smith has been out of action since March, following St Mirren’s famous 1-0 Scottish Cup sixth round win over Celtic.

However, it’s understood that the damage to his knee may have been caused when he kept goal four days prior to that game – in a SPL match with Aberdeen at St Mirren Park, which finished 1-1.

It was later discovered that Smudger had sustained a serious injury in his left knee although, at the time, the muscles around it protected the young stopper him from feeling any pain.

The injury got progressively worse and it was confirmed that Smith needed a serious operation, which involved a replacement ligament being taken from his hamstring and inserted through his shin and on to his knee.

His lateral ligament was also badly damaged and had to be repaired.

Since then, Smith has been forced to play the waiting game to discover if the ligaments have stitched themselves back to his knee bone correctly.

The big goalie – who is expected to be out of action until 2010 – said: "These kind of injuries take time to heal. It’s not going to get fixed in five minutes but the club have been brilliant with me, sending me to London to see someone who is respected all over the UK and Europe for his work on reconstructive knee surgery.

"The physio John McCreadie has been brilliant and he’s been keeping my spirits up. Now I have to concentrate on keeping fit and ensuring I don’t have any further injuries."

"Twisting and turning is out of the question at the moment but, hopefully, the specialist can give me a timescale for stepping things up."