Looking back on last season, one of the lowlights of course was the decline in Darren Fletcher’s health. Sadly for our hard-working Scottish midfielder, a mysterious stomach virus resulted in him losing significant weight which saw him miss the final two months of our season.

Fletcher in recent years has certainly been one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s first names on the team sheet, as his hard-working displays make him one of our most reliable players. With that in mind it’s no coincidence that up until his illness last season that Fletcher more often than not played in the so-called crunch games both in England and Europe.

It has been pleasing to see just how far Fletcher has progressed as a player since his first couple of seasons when he became a first-team regular. Back then due to his inexperience and small physique it was hard for him to impose himself on the game.

Unfairly perhaps as a result he was often criticised by United fans for not being ‘good enough’ and there were doubts that he would not be able to ‘make it’ at Old Trafford long-term. That criticism was extremely harsh as in his first couple of seasons; the team were not getting the results – that the fans desired – because they were in a transitional period.

With Arsenal and Chelsea having better squads in terms of quality and depth, it was hard for us as a team to make a long-lasting challenge on either team.

Therefore our younger players like Fletcher probably had too much pressure on their shoulders early on in their career and were required perhaps to play with more responsibility than they would if they had come into a successful team.

Of course as all United fans will never forget, Fletcher was one of several young players criticised by Roy Keane in his infamous pre-recorded MUTV interview which was deemed too controversial to broadcast back in November 2005.

That interview which ultimately paved the way for Keane’s departure from Old Trafford that same month actually worked to the benefit of Fletcher in particular as it enabled him to go out and prove his doubters wrong.

Fletcher in an interview with James Ducker of the Sunday Times in February last year spoke about Keane and this testing time in his career, which I really think is worth paying attention to:

“He [Keane] made me the professional I am now, rather than the player,” Fletcher said. “He made clear the standards expected of a Manchester United player and drilled that into you. That’s the thing that stays with you. If you didn’t do something right, Roy Keane would criticise you. If you did do something right, he’d praise you.

“People never see the praise side of things because it came quietly — a word in your ear.

“A lot was written [after the MUTV interview], over-the-top stuff. It’s something that’s going to stick with me, there’s nothing I can do about that. But he had a great influence on my career.

“It meant a lot, it meant everything, but I knew the times he was criticising me was because he wanted me to do better. It’s character-building, being at this club with players like that.

“The biggest part of this club is how you handle it mentally. I’m one of those who wasn’t going to hide away if I got criticised or shirk my responsibility. I wanted to prove them wrong.”

Looking back at it now, it was important that Fletcher as he said did go out and prove his doubters wrong as coming out stronger after that ‘testing period’ has helped him toughen up and improve his overall game.

It’s important here to realise that in similar circumstances other young players may have crumbled under the pressure and in not looking like reaching the light at the end of the tunnel would probably have been sold as a result.

So for Fletcher to emerge into a first-team regular and someone who – as I stated before in the article –  Sir Alex time and time again has entrusted to play in the big/crunch games for us shows you just how well he’s done.

In a way looking back at it now, it does seem strange remembering that Fletcher was someone who our fans were uncertain with. Then again he was only in his early 20’s and in over time he was always going to improve, alike all young players it was a matter of time before we started seeing the best in him.

His form from the start of the 2008/09 season up until the time of he got struck down by this virus was exceptional for us and it was no surprise that his peers voted him into the PFA Premier League team of the year two seasons ago as a result of his performances.

All fans of Manchester United as well as the Scotland national team, will be hoping that Fletcher can recover from his latest set-back in his recovery as soon as possible.

Even despite the improvements made by Anderson and Michael Carrick in the new-year there is no doubt that a United team with the current captain of Scotland in, is better than one without.

At only 27 years old, he has the potential to be at us another 5-6 years at least – let’s hope this virus doesn’t prevent him from doing that as there’s so much our current and future young players can learn from him.

By @ADennehey87