Former Manchester United and Leeds star Alan Smith has opened up about an injury that caused permanent nerve damage, leaving him unable to feel three toes
Former Manchester United and Leeds striker Alan Smith has opened up about why he’s permanently lost sensation in three toes on his left foot.
The ex-Premier League forward carved out an impressive career, clocking up 604 competitive matches and finding the net 70 times. Alongside stints at Old Trafford, Elland Road and Newcastle United, Smith became infamous for enduring what Sir Alex Ferguson described as one of the most horrific injuries he’d witnessed.
The gruesome incident occurred during an FA Cup match with Liverpool, when Smith broke his leg whilst attempting to block a John Arne Riise free-kick. Yet Smith has now disclosed that a separate injury sustained whilst playing for Newcastle has left him with far more lasting damage, robbing him of feeling in three toes.
Smith, speaking via Unibet Betting said: “It actually wasn’t that one with Riise that made the ankle as bad as it was.
“When I played in the derby for Newcastle against Sunderland, that’s when I did it again. I just got a tackle, Kieran Richardson came in, it was a bad tackle, but it wasn’t malicious. He just came in and caught me on my standing foot, on my standing leg, but it was my left.
“He literally just went high on my ankle, and my ankle inverted, so the opposite of what it should and it just went inwards. That was worse because I already had all my metal work in there.
“I went to James Calder at the Fortius Clinic in London about it, because he’d done a lot of my surgeries after, and he basically couldn’t tell what was new damage and what was old damage, and that’s when I lost all the nerve damage in my foot, because I can’t feel the last three toes on my left side, I can’t feel them.”
The 45-year-old opened up about his leg break at Anfield two decades ago, insisting the injury was entirely accidental. Smith admitted: “Yeah, you’re probably right I would charge and block the Riise free-kick again.
“When you look back at it, you know lads who have played and all f****** put their bodies through all sorts, and they’ve all got ailments and can’t walk and can’t do that, but that’s what we were, that’s what you do!
“Everyone says this and that about Riise, and I’m like, ‘f****** hell, he didn’t do anything wrong!’ It wasn’t a bad tackle. It was just unfortunate. You block it, you land, it goes underneath you, whatever it is.”
Despite such a significant injury, Smith continues to play football casually and coaches in the United States. He has also stayed active by engaging in other sports.
“Yeah the body’s fine, because I don’t really try and do anything to make it bad,” he disclosed when asked about his current condition. “Cycling, swimming… I think the key is to just try and keep doing something.
“It’s trying to find that balance of doing something that doesn’t make my ankle really bad so I’m struggling to walk, but doing enough to get movement in it. So it’s doing okay.
“It’s just not stressing it too much because it’s the inflammation then obviously the next day. I’ve been doing red light therapy on my ankle quite a bit and that’s been helping it because it takes the inflammation down a lot. Just in the mornings when I’m getting going that I struggle with the ankle.”
Speaking about having pins in his ankle, he revealed: “Yeah, I’ve got them in my left side. My left side I’ve got the screws in. The same screws from the operation!
“Some people take them out, but I always remember when I went to United, Quinton Fortune had them in his knee, and then Quinnie got advice that he should take them out, and I always remember he took them out, and then a few months later, he did his knee again.
“So I’ve always thought I’d rather leave him in and be on safe side than try and take him out and then, God forbid, all that happens.”