The 30-year-old has been sidelined with an ankle injury since May.
“When he makes his comeback, he’ll be ready.” Smith told the club website.
“He will play against (Dundee) United’s reserves and after that I’d hope he’ll become more gradually involved with the full side.”
Ferguson could be in the line-up for Saturday’s visit of Inverness.
“It is natural people are anxious now to get him back,” Smith added.
“I’ll involve Barry in the pool of players for the Hamilton game but that game might be a bit early for him.
“Barry will get another game on Wednesday and I’m hopeful that if he gets through that match without any problems, he’ll come back in at the weekend.
“I don’t mean that in terms of his injury because that’s okay now. If the after-effects of playing in midweek aren’t too severe, we would look at him coming in on Saturday.
“He is itching to get back playing again but he had an awareness of his injury now, as we do.”
