The future looks bright for Salako

Glenn Moore meets the Crystal Palace winger who hopes his long journey back to fitness will end by lifting the FA Cup

He is lean, dusky-skinned and fresh-faced, with tousled jet-black hair. But the first thing you notice when John Salako sits down are the scars on his legs. They are big, ugly scars, the sort that would impress even a surgeon.

Every time he sits in the bath or reaches down to pull on his boots, Salako will see these scars and be reminded of the two lost years they represent.

In October 1991 the world was at his feet. He was 22, had played in an FA Cup final and had just won his fifth England cap against Germany at Wembley. With his youth, looks and exciting wing-play, he seemed about to join the ranks of the really big stars.

Then, on a warm autumn night playing for Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, he suffered a sickening knee injury. That was it for the season. He was back for the next campaign, but after a dozen games, it was back to the operating table.

"It was really going well for me," he recalled at Palace's Mitcham training ground this week. "I remember thinking that things were starting to happen. The injury was a massive blow."

Eighteen months ago he tried again, scored a hat-trick in his first start, but has flattered to deceive ever since. At times he sparkles, at others he seems a ghost of his former self. Tomorrow at Villa Park, Palace will need him to be sparkling, as they take on Manchester United, the holders, in the FA Cup semi-final.

"I was quite pleased with my form early on this season, but I have not scored for a while, and you always seem to judge yourself by whether you score or not. It gives you an inner confidence," Salako said.

"It has taken me a couple of seasons to get back into the pace, to regain full fitness and good habits. By next season I think I will be fully fit and flying again. I am really looking forward to next season - it will be a big year for me - and I will be putting in some hard work in the summer."

He has already done plenty of hard work, in the gym and in the mind. "It has been hard mentally," adds the 26-year-old Salako. "I never felt my career would be finished as I am not that kind of person; whatever happened, I always felt I would play again.

"The most important thing was to keep myself stimulated. It is very tough watching the guys training and not being involved yourself. Although I was doing some circuit-training in the gym, it was very demoralising.

"I hated watching to start with, but I did a lot of work with television which helped. Live television is like playing - you do the preparation, you are really looking forward to it, and you get those same butterflies in the stomach. The excitement is there, the adrenalin is pumping. It also meant I got to watch a lot of football and kept myself involved.

"I learned a lot through analysing matches and patterns of play. It helped me as a coach - I took my full badge - and I hope it will help me as a player," he says.

At present, Palace are looking back as much as forward; back to the 1990 FA Cup semi-final when they defeated Liverpool at Villa Park. Salako, Nigel Martyn and Richard Shaw are the only survivors of that match.

"It is very reminiscent, we have been drawing parallels with that game. We were struggling then and we are struggling now, but we have had good cup runs - we seem to have saved our best for the cups. We have reached the semis of both, and we need to cap that by staying up."

Palace beat Liverpool 4-3, then lost to Manchester United in the final after a replay. Both occasions, Salako says, can only be savoured in retrospect.

"On the day it is a blur. Then you watch the video and it brings the memories back. When you play in a semi-final or final you cannot really enjoy it, because if you start thinking about the size of the occasion you will freeze. I think that is what some people do, they think: `This is the Cup final, there are millions watching on television', and they freeze.

"One of the sad things about football is that you only really enjoy it when you look back on it. When you are in it, you are concentrating so hard that you don't have time. Only afterwards can you reflect on it."

Salako has had plenty of time to reflect over the last few years, and he admits it has taken him a while to regain the single-mindedness that his profession requires.

"Like a lot of things, you only miss it when you have not got it, and not playing made me appreciate it all the more. You realise exactly how lucky and privileged you are to be a professional footballer.

"But you have to go past that and be selfish, you have to demand more of yourself. You could come in every day and just think: `I am happy to be playing'. You have to go beyond that if you want to get back into contention for the national team."

Salako had only done some light training on Thursday due to a hamstring strain, and there had been times when he was seen practising his golf swing as Alan Smith, the Palace manager, talked his way through yet another free-kick routine.

Golf is Salako's main pastime, but there will be reminders of an earlier love at Villa Park tomorrow. As a schoolboy, Salako represented Kent at cricket and he remains close to Alan Igglesden, who grew up with Salako in the Kent village of Westerham.

Both Iggleseden and his fellow Kent and England bowler, Martin McCague, will be at Villa Park. McCague was introduced to Selhurst Park by Igglesden, and both players are renowned for stealing away to their rooms to watch the English football highlights when they are on tour.

Both, too, know how hard the long haul back to form and fitness can be after injury. Like Salako, they have yet to complete the journey, but tomorrow they hope to see the Palace player show them the way.