Smith returns ahead of schedule after fearing his season was over

With Cobblers trailing 4-0 on a horror afternoon in West Sussex, and just moments after Shaun McWilliams was also stretchered off with a bad knee injury, Smith collapsed in a heap after getting his ankle caught in a challenge.

The 24-year-old, in visible agony, feared the worst as he received over 10 minutes of treatment on the pitch before being taken to hospital soon after the full-time whistle.

However, whilst he would miss the next two months, Smith's injury was not as serious as first thought and he returned ahead of schedule when introduced for the second 45 minutes against Mansfield Town on Saturday.

Asked if he thought his season was over, Smith said: "Yes, absolutely. I've said before that when I went down I thought initially that my ankle or my foot would be broken after I heard the crack.

"Originally I was told I'd be out for three months but I'm back in two and a half.

"Luckily it wasn't as bad as first feared and I've grafted for the last 10 and a bit weeks as hard as I possibly could and I'm just delighted to be back involved with the boys."

Smith made a positive impact when introduced as a half-time sub on Saturday and was fractions away from levelling when his header dropped agonisingly in front of Callum Morton and narrowly wide of the far post.

Smith did eventually score with a superb header in stoppage-time but by that stage the game had been lost.

"The gaffer told me to go on and throw myself about and we had to go for it in the second-half," he added.

"We left gaps at the back and unfortunately they capitalised on one of them but if it had been 11 v 11 I think we would have won the game.

"They didn't really trouble us when it was 10 against 11 other than the opportunities on the break but we had to go all guns blazing towards the end and gaps were found by them.

"For myself, if I score, I score but it's all about the team and unfortunately we couldn't get the win today.

"The goal came a bit too late. I asked the ref how much time was left when I scored and he said about 30 seconds so it was going to take something miraculous to score.

"It just wasn't to be today but no-one's down in the changing room. We've just got to roll our sleeves up and go again next week."