Smith ready and willing to answer Ferguson's call

The last time Manchester United collected a trophy, they did so wearing "This is for you, Smudge" T-shirts. Alan Smith is determined the next cup United win, he will be playing a full part in the celebrations.

Smith was only just out of hospital after suffering a broken leg and dislocated ankle in a freak accident during an FA Cup tie at Liverpool when Gary Neville held the Carling Cup aloft at the Millennium Stadium last February.

Since then, Smith has been forced to scrap two comeback attempts and reject Sir Alex Ferguson's offer of a period away from Old Trafford on loan.

The latter stance, in particular, seemed somewhat foolhardy given that what the United manager wants at the club, he usually gets.

Little did Ferguson know Smith would return to full fitness just when he needed him most. So, with Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer injured and Henrik Larsson back in Sweden, Smith will be asked to take some of the striking burden off Wayne Rooney as United attempt to close in on the treble.

"There is a big month coming up now and I want to be involved," said Smith. "It is what I have worked so hard for. As soon as I suffered the injury, I set myself three goals. The first was to get myself fit, the second was to get back into the team and the third was to win more international honours.

"Physically, I am probably fitter than I have ever been in my life," he said. "I am confident about getting a chance between now and the end of the season and when I do, it is up to me to take it."

Cardiff and Smith's former club Leeds were among the clubs believed to be interested in taking him on loan. Despite Ferguson's persuasive powers, Smith was determined to stick it out at Old Trafford and, while speculation persists he will be the odd man out when United finalise their striking options for next season, he remains convinced he is good enough to hold down a place in the first-team line-up.

"I am not leaving, it is as simple as that," he said. "There has been a lot of speculation but I am going nowhere. I feel I am good enough to play in this team. I have always believed that. That is why I signed.

"The manager gave me the option to go out on loan but I told him I believed I was good enough to play in his team and he accepted that. If I had gone on loan and Ole and Louis had been injured and Henrik had gone, we would have been down to one striker.

"There would have been nothing worse for me than to leave and be somewhere else when this club was short on strikers."

It has been a long road back for Smith, though. He initially turned out in a pre-season game at Preston, only to realise he was not quite as fit as he thought.

Two Carling Cup starts at Crewe and Southend a couple of months later only brought fresh concerns, with Smith eventually agreeing to go on a personal fitness programme which is now starting to pay dividends.

"After the two cup games I knew I was still miles off," he said. "But it was a bonus really because it allowed me to focus on what rehabilitation work I needed to do to get fit again.

"I do believe I can get back to what I was. That is what the manager is hoping for as well. The good thing about this club is they give players time to recover from long-term injuries. They did it with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and they did it with Roy Keane."

After enjoying a relatively injury-free first half of the campaign, suddenly fitness problems are starting to bite for United.

Apart from Solskjaer, Saha, Darren Fletcher and the suspended Paul Scholes, Edwin van der Sar is also a definite absentee from both Saturday's home Premiership game with Bolton and the FA Cup quarter-final replay with Middlesbrough 48 hours later.

At least that quintet will be back by the end of the month. Unfortunately for Mikaël Silvestre, his season is now over after United confirmed that the French defender required surgery on the right shoulder he dislocated against Lille in the Champions League match last week.

"Mikaël's right shoulder required surgery to stabilise the joint," said a United spokesman. "He will be back in training in three months."

Although Silvestre was not a regular starter for United this season, mustering just 21 appearances, the 29-year-old is a particularly useful member of Ferguson's squad given his ability to play both in central defence and left-back.

The happier news for United is that both Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic should be fit to face Bolton after missing Tuesday night's Uefa charity game with rib and nasal problems respectively.

Nevertheless, unless Patrice Evra is available, Ferguson will have only 14 senior players to choose from against Bolton, meaning a place on the bench for either Chris Eagles or China international Dong Fangzhou, who made his first Old Trafford appearance on Tuesday.