• Premier League

Ferguson protected Fletcher as his weight plummeted

Darren Fletcher has revealed he lost almost three stones in weight when he suffered from the debilitating bowel condition that threatened to end his career.

The Manchester United vice-captain was first diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2008, but it affected him most in a two-and-a-half year spell from 2011 to 2013, when he hardly played first-team football.

Fletcher eventually had surgery to remove a large intestine but before then the midfielder, who prefers to be 12st 6, had lost almost a quarter of his weight.

Darren Fletcher says he owes everything in his career to Sir Alex Ferguson © Getty Images

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"I dropped as low as 9st 10½," he told the Daily Mail. "Incredible really, because I look slim at the best of times."

Fletcher said that, because he needed to use the toilet up to 30 times a day, he could not go to a restaurant or watch his twin sons play football.

He added: "Then there were the pounding headaches, and the constant need for the bathroom. Other drugs I took I suffered some strong reactions to. One morning, when I was supposed to be going training, I woke up in bed unable to move a single muscle. I was on a drug trial for a week and they said it might happen. But it was obviously alarming, even if it was dealt with pretty much instantly with an injection."

Fletcher thanked former manager Sir Alex Ferguson for his backing after confiding in his fellow Scot.

He said: "I owe him everything in my career but he rose to a different level for me in the way he supported me through this.

"He was also a really caring, kind individual who did everything to help me and protect me when I was ill. For me and my family.

"He gave me the time off I needed, told me not to worry about contract situations, told me to think of my health and my family first; to forget about football and just focus on that."

Fletcher, 30, and Ferguson had publicly played down his problems but he decided to talk to his team-mates in December 2011.

"I didn't tell everyone," he said. "Just a group of lads I'm particularly close to. We were sitting having a meal after the game - Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand were there - and I knew they'd pass it on to the rest of the lads.

"I just said I was going to have to take a break because of this illness, and they were so sympathetic and understanding. Just brilliant."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd