THE smile on Ibrahim Ba's face tells Sam Allardyce that the Frenchman is unlikely to have been permanently scarred by his tortuous time with AC Milan.

Ba was finally freed from his Italian nightmare yesterday when he received international clearance to become a Bolton player.

The 29-year-old former France international winger will have to wait at least another couple of weeks to make his Wanderers' debut as Allardyce concedes that, although fully fit, he is lacking match sharpness. But the manager believes that, despite being left to rot at the San Siro, Bas has the pedigree and the character to rise again.

"Hopefully his mental side has not been destroyed too much because he has been lost to the world of football for a few years," he said.

"For a player with great capabilities, to all of a sudden find yourself discarded with no squad number and with no chance of playing puts you under severe mental strain.

"It is crucial that he is in the right frame of mind because otherwise he won't be able to produce the ability he is capable of if he is struggling mentally.

"We had the same problems last season with Ivan Campo when he came to us. We had to resurrect him mentally and hopefully we can now do the same for Ibrahim.

"We think we have given him the environment to release his tensions and to start to enjoy his life and training again.

"If he can get back to the level he was playing at before he went to AC Milan then we will have a great player on our hands."

"Seeing him around the place he is always smiling. That is an indication to me that he is ready to prove people wrong. If we give him a platform for that then he is going to benefit and so are we."