Boss' Pledge To Fletcher

Sir Alex has pledged to give Darren Fletcher all the time and support he needs in order to regain full fitness.

The club announced this week that the Scotland international is taking an extended break from football as he has been suffering from ulcerative colitis. Whilst accepting the absence of one of his loyal servants is a blow, the boss has been quick to stress that the player's health is his paramount concern.

"The medical people have made the right decision," stated the manager. "They regarded Darren's health as the more important issue and we as a club agree completely with that. He's not been in training – he was in hospital for a few days, and he'll rest now.

"Darren is a loss - he's such a great professional and it's not easy to replace that, but we'll have to think about that. Hopefully he'll make a full recovery. It's obviously going to take a bit of time and rest is the most important thing at the moment. It’ll be the medical people who make all the decisions and we’re quite happy with that. I can't put a timescale on it."

The boss revealed there was no question of persuading Fletcher to take a rest - it was a simply a decision that needed to be made for his long-term benefit.

"I don’t think persuasion comes into it at all," he said. "It’s an accurate assessment by the medical people and also Darren knowing his own situation and how he was feeling. There was no persuasion needed at all. He’s disappointed but you have to deal with these things, but he can do that because he has a strong character.

"It's easier now it's out in the open. That was the big decision he had to make. We were trying to address the confidentiality part of it in a different way by talking about a virus but that was down to protecting Darren. He got to the position, particularly in Scotland, where there was more delving into why we kept talking about a virus, and I think he felt a bit uncomfortable about it. So he decided to make it public."

Sir Alex was asked if another midfield absentee means he will be forced into making a signing during the January transfer window.

"Not necessarily," he replied. "I don’t why people keep going on about that [buying in January]. It’s never been a route we’ve taken consistently unless a player that we’ve been interested in appears but there is no sign of that at the moment. So therefore it’s not always suitable to us.

"If you look at the options we have [in midfield] - [Phil] Jones has played a few games there, Ryan [Giggs] obviously can play there too and Ji [-sung Park] is capable of playing there too. There are maybe one or two other options - Darron Gibson is an option. He had an early season injury, but he has experience needed to play in central midfield. The options are not too bad.

"Young [Paul] Pogba is an option. He’s progressing very well. It’s one of these situations – unless there is a player we’ve been interested in for a while appears and you can get him, then there isn’t much point in bringing an individual in because it gives you another player.

"Pogba is a possibility. He’s a big strong lad, a good athlete. He's improving and developing well.

"Since he’s come to the club we’ve seen the progress he’s made and in terms of that youth team we had last year, six of them have all had a bit of experience of the first team this year. Of course, young [Ryan] Tunnicliffe is another member – he’s over at Peterborough – he’s playing Championship football at 18 years of age, so he’s doing very well.

"It’s a good group that – it’s turned out very well. Pogba physically is better than the rest of that group, maybe apart from Zeki Fryers who is a very good athlete."