Mick Clegg has lauded Darren Fletcher for overcoming his personal health problems at Manchester United.
Clegg spent 11 years as strength and condition coach at United and he played a significant role in many players' periods of rehab after injury. Clegg helped Alan Smith recover from his dislocated ankle and Wayne Rooney from his broken metatarsal, for example.
However, Clegg had a different challenge to help Fletcher with illness. Fletcher, who is now United's technical director, made 342 appearances at Old Trafford but that would have been more if he wasn't forced to deal with a debilitating bowel disease.
ALSO READ: Manchester United consult Erik ten Hag on Pau Torres transfer
Although Clegg departed United in 2011, he still played a huge role in Flecther's comeback from the sidelines, as he's now revealed.
"I left United in 2011 and shortly after my time at the club had ended, it became public knowledge that Darren was battling ulcerative colitis, which is a debilitating bowel disease," Clegg told United's in-house media.
"Over the next two years, he went through two lengthy career breaks and underwent major surgery; during that period he was informed repeatedly that his playing days were all-but over, and he would be undergoing rehabilitation just to restore his quality of life, not looking to pull on the United shirt again. Darren wasn’t having that.
"He set his sights on getting back out on the pitch. However, whenever he went in at Carrington, he found that everybody was being too nice to him. With United’s permission, he wanted me to work with him at my gym in Ashton-under-Lyne for a couple of months. so that he was able to get into full training and be among the fittest players in the squad. that was a very, very ambitious goal.
"In short, it was a lot of work, meticulously planned out. Every step of the way, Darren believed in himself, believed that he could achieve what was borderline impossible, and watching him go through his routine every single day was truly inspirational.
"At the end of his rehab process, he’d somehow gone even further up in my estimation. He did everything that was asked of him, incrementally, missing no steps and avoiding the huge temptation to rush himself before he was ready.
"The payoff was that he was able to resume first-team training at Carrington properly and, within long, he was back playing regularly under David Moyes."
Sign up to our United newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season.
