Smith set for Hibs exit in the summer

Graeme SMITH'S Hibs career will come to an end this summer, it has emerged.

The 27-year-old goalkeeper is one of several Easter Road players whose contract will expire at the end of the season and he joins the likes of Kevin McBride, who has already left, John Rankin, Colin Nish and Valdas Trakys in being shown the door by manager Colin Calderwood.

A former Rangers youngster who made his name with Motherwell, Smith joined Hibs on a one-and-a-half-year contract midway through last season after a switch to League One outfit Brighton failed to work out.

He swiftly emerged as John Hughes' first-choice keeper in the second half of last term as Hibs made heavy weather of securing European football. Smith slipped behind Graham Stack and Mark Brown in the pecking order at the start of this season, playing only one game - at home to Maribor in the Europa League - in the first half of the current campaign.

He was given his first run in the team under Calderwood when he was recalled for the Scottish Cup humbling at Ayr United in January and played in the next three games, which all ended in defeat. His only appearance since the end of the January came as a substitute in the win at Hamilton in early March.