Darren Fletcher worried about future

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 22: Darren Fletcher of Manchester United beats Artur of SL Benfica prior to scoring his team

Manchester United mid­field player Dar­ren Fletcher, who has not appeared in a com­pet­it­ive match since Novem­ber 2011, still does not know when he will be able to play for the club again. The Scot­land inter­na­tional was dia­gnosed with a ser­i­ous bowel dis­ease about eight months ago and his foot­balling career could now be in jeopardy.

At the end of last year Dar­ren Fletcher was recom­men­ded by spe­cial­ist doc­tors to take a long break from the game of foot­ball after the Manchester United stal­wart was dia­gnosed with ulcer­at­ive colitis. The causes of ulcer­at­ive colitis are not fully under­stood, but they are thought to be down to bac­teria in the guts fight­ing against the body’s immune sys­tem. The Edin­burgh born mid­fielder has not played a first team game for Manchester United since the 2–2 draw with long time rivals Ben­fica at Old Traf­ford in the UEFA Cham­pi­ons League back in Novem­ber 2011.

Sir Alex Fer­guson believes that the comeback is very much possible. He said, “Obvi­ously, Dar­ren Fletcher is try­ing very hard to get back to his level. It’s not going to be easy, but we will give him every pos­sible chance and we will see how it goes. He kept him­self act­ive towards the end of the sea­son when he replaced Paul Scholes as reserves coach when Scholes decided to come back as a player. Dar­ren is a ter­rific lad, and we all hope that he can come back.”