Darren Fletcher fears as Sir Alex says he won’t start new season

By SIMON STONE
Published on 13/07/2012 00:00

SCOTLAND captain Darren Fletcher’s career is in the balance after Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed the Manchester United midfielder has still to launch a comeback from his chronic bowel complaint.

After months of struggling to combat a mystery ailment, United eventually came clean over the extent of Fletcher’s problem in December.

At the time, Scotland manager Craig Levein expressed hope his skipper would be fit to lead his country into their 2014 World Cup qualification campaign. However, that is not going to happen, with Ferguson revealing yesterday that the 28-year-old has not even attempted a return to training yet.

United have already been forced to reject one claim on a social media site earlier this year that the Dalkeith-born player was about to announce his retirement. But, while he continued to express hope for his fellow countryman, there was little in Ferguson’s assessment of the situation that suggested Fletcher could win his fitness fight.

“Darren has not started training with us,” he said. “Obviously he has got challenges and we are happy to be patient with him. But he won’t be starting the season. It is unfortunate because he is such a magnificent professional and such a nice lad. If it doesn’t work for him he knows he has a position at the club.”

Fletcher spent the second half of last season doing some of the coaching duties that had been assigned to Paul Scholes until he performed a retirement U-turn midway through the campaign. However, if he is forced to call time on his playing career, it would be a cruel way to end it. Fletcher was restricted to just ten appearances last term, his last coming against Benfica at Old Trafford in November.