Fletcher Making Up For Lost Time

Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher is out to regain the two years he missed due to illness.

The Scot's return to the first-team fold has been a heartwarming tale following his battle with ulcerative colitis and he has become an important member of the squad since making his comeback against Aston Villa in mid-December.

"I feel like I'm making up for lost time, to be perfectly honest," he told Inside United. "I always cherished the position I was in and people were saying: 'You should just be happy to be back'. But I never wanted to get in that mindset because I think it's a dangerous mindset to get into, where you just accept a level.

"I always feel that if you put caps on just being happy and settling for stuff, then you can never progress yourself. So I see that I've got a lot of lost time to make up for. I want to try and put those two years on at the end of my career."

Fletcher faced a frustrating spell on the sidelines but tried to put his time to good use, with one eye on his future career.

"The biggest thing I did was take some of the coaching badges," he explained. "But, to be honest, most of the time was just recovering between operations and building myself up to go for another one. It was difficult but it had to be done."