Rangers' crock of gold

Injury has again stalled his return at Ibrox but Stevie Smith is confident he can live up to his early promise, he tells Andrew Smith

IN THE biography of Stevie Smith compiled by his representatives, Braveheart Promotions, all the bases are covered as to why the career of the Rangers left-back is considered rich in promise. A senior debut only six weeks after he turned 18 in October 2003… the run that established him as a first pick two years later… a call-up for the Ukraine and France double header in October 2006 that was kiboshed because of an ankle strain, and the impressive form that represented just about the only plus from the Paul Le Guen era.

Almost as a mere footnote comes an acknowledgement that Smith has had a difficult time with injuries. Yet it is the 22-year-old's career that is in danger of becoming a footnote when set against the details of his body rebelling against the game's rigours. Games racked up, accolades earned and medals won are supposed to be the staging posts in a footballer's development. Smith, crushingly, can more accurately chart his seasons through scans, specialists, lay-offs and rehabilitation periods.

On Wednesday came news of another scan, another lay-off and another rehabilitation period. An ankle twist in training the previous week that kept Smith out of the club's German tour was initially declared a minor strain that would be shaken off in a week. Instead, it has emerged Smith has sustained ligament damage that will sideline him for four to six weeks.

"I've dealt with much worse," is the best sheen Smith can place on his latest injury setback. "I just rolled over on my ankle and it began to bother me a wee bit. It is just one of those things. But I have been training every day for five months and have done most of the running this pre-season, so I have got to look at coming back as quickly as I can."

How many times must Smith have uttered those words? When the emergence of a pelvic problem cast a shadow over his career shortly after he joined Rangers full-time as a 17-year-old? When he required further treatment on that area in 2005? After his hernia operation to cure the problem in 2006? Or after that unsuccessful procedure was repeated with better results in 2007?

Most exasperating of all for Smith must be that this year he finally seemed to have freed himself from the injury curse that had bedevilled his career. In full training since Christmas day last year, he has been fit throughout 2008. He ended 15 months without a senior appearance when he started in the Scottish Cup quarter-final replay against Partick Thistle, then played in the semi-final against St Johnstone. Opportunities were otherwise understandably denied him because Walter Smith had to stick by men with a season's worth of solid form behind them. The question now is when will the Rangers manager be able to place his trust in a player who, by his own admission, has understandably been the subject of much doomsaying in "playing for four weeks then vanishing for four months"?

Out of sight, Smith found himself in the minds of phone-in callers who had heard it from a friend of a friend at Murray Park that he was finished. "I didn't listen to them but rumours on these stations were hard for my family," he says. "I knew I was coming back because I had come through the same situation when I was younger. It just wasn't highlighted then because I hadn't played in Rangers' first team. But my family would wonder if I was holding something back for them. All it needs is for one person to go public with made-up gossip to cause a lot of upset."

Long-term injury casualties in football are always treated two ways by journalists and fans super-cynical by nature. It is confidently predicted these players are never coming back and, if that proves bogus, then it is predicted they at least will "never be the same player". Smith, who it should be remembered was considered a more refined prospect than Alan Hutton, can be placed in the latter category.

"I have been two years out so it is natural for people to ask if I am the same player," he says. "I know my body better than anyone and I know I am the same player. I am not different, not scared or nervous in training, and just feel as I did. Before I hurt my ankle, I was training to the same level that I had two years ago, and the same level as the other guys. Our sessions are of such high intensity, I wouldn't be able to do that if there was an underlying problem. I wouldn't kid on and try to play through anything; I couldn't do that.

"I'm not daft about how difficult it is going to be to prove I am the same player in the first team, though. The manager has players who have played 60 and 70 games for him and Steven Whittaker, Sasa Papac, Kirk Broadfoot and Christian Dailly can all play left-back. All I can say is that I feel much stronger mentally because of what I've been through. I had good days, bad days and terrible days during the past two years and the terrible days were really awful. But I stayed positive and I came through."

Smith has been spiritedly battling on against serious physical ailments since he first pitched up at Murray Park. "I don't know if it was going full-time or playing too many games when I was younger, but the pelvic problems started then," he said. "The club's Dutch doctor (Gert Jan Goudswaart] called my mum and dad in and said I might need to think about having something else to fall back on, but should certainly rest for a year to see if I would heal naturally." A second opinion was sought from a Belgian specialist, Gerard Schilders, who had treated Steven Gerrard, and he administered injections that allowed Smith to return to training almost immediately.

Two years later, Schilders pursued the same course of action with similar results after Smith was troubled by further inflammation in the groin area. In December 2006, after playing in an Old Firm derby at Ibrox, Smith knew his troubles had returned with a vengeance. "It wasn't always the same thing I was suffering, but problems in the same area," the player says. "I knew I was gone after that game. I had felt a soreness the week before and wouldn't have played if it hadn't been Celtic."

Schilders' diagnosis was that a double-hernia operation was required, invasive procedures having been previously avoided because of Smith's age. After it was carried out in the March, the full-back spent last pre-season undergoing a rehabilitation programme in a Belgian sports clinic alongside team-mate, and local tour guide for his stay, Thomas Buffel.

On his return, Smith broke down again and it was decided that a new approach was required. The club enlisted the services Munich surgeon Ulrike Muschaweck and in October Smith found himself keeping company with Craig Bellamy as both had operations in Germany in the same week. "She found a trapped nerve on one side, and the double-hernia surgery then seemed to get to the root of it," the full-back says.

Before his ankle buckled, Smith was arriving at Murray Park with the larks to do personal strengthening sessions even before joining in the group strengthening sessions that have prepared the Rangers squad for field work. However much Smith seems to build himself – and his hopes – up, though, his body seems intent on knocking him down.