Smith calls time on playing career
FORMER Notts County favourite Alan Smith has announced his retirement but says life in the lower leagues “drove him” to extend his career.
The former Manchester United star was released by the Magpies in the summer after spending four years at Meadow Lane where he was highly respected.
But Smith will no longer continue playing after telling the Daily Mirror that the horrific ankle injury he suffered at United left him continually playing through the pain barrier.
Smith broke his leg and dislocated his ankle during a game against Liverpool 12 years ago in an injury Sir Alex Ferguson said was one of the worst he had ever seen.
But the 37-year-old, who has 10 pins in his ankle, fought back remarkably against all the odds to continue playing, going on to enjoy spells with Newcastle United, MK Dons and Notts.
Now, after a 20-year career, he is set to coach kids in America after deciding the time is right to hang up the boots.
“I knew with the injury it would be touch and go whether I could carry on playing - the surgeon said that,” he said.
“It would have been easier to walk away and people remember you as a top Premier League player. But I didn’t want that, because I loved playing football. Your love of it makes you go through the pain barrier.
“Most people I have played with, and managers, have respected me for staying in football when it would have been easy to walk away. But I dropped down to the Championship, dropped down to League One and dropped down to League Two.
“Loads of people would say to me, ‘Why I am bothering?’ Whether I was earning £500-a-week or nothing, if people felt I could still contributed I wanted to keep playing.
“The injury made me a better person after doing so well so young.
“I learnt at any time, football can be over. I am lucky through sheer grit and determination I carried on playing.
“The good people I met lower down the leagues probably drove me on to stay in football longer. But by the end, the day-to-day training was doing more harm than good. I couldn’t compete at a level I felt I could easily before. I get out of bed and can’t walk properly, my ankle is stiff all the time.
“I went for a run in the summer and managed to do a couple of miles but stopped and started walking because my ankle was hurting. I went back last month and the surgeon said, ‘I don’t want you doing any straight-line running’, just because it will damage the joint.
“I have no regrets, for me I see retiring early being the easy option.”