Darren Fletcher
Darren Fletcher, the Scotland and Manchester United midfielder, will miss the remainder of the 2012/13 football season following surgery to try and resolve the ulcerative colitis that limited him to just 13 appearances for club and country in 2012.
Having taken time out from the game in December 2011, he made his return for Manchester United against Turkish side Galatasaray in the Champions League in September last year. His last start came against Reading on 1 December and he subsequently managed only two substitute appearances. His return in the dark blue came in the 2-1 defeat by Wales that effectively cost Craig Levein his job as Scotland manager.
Gordon Strachan, Levein’s successor as Scotland manager, said: ‘I’m sure I speak for all Scotland fans when I say I hope the operation allows Darren to overcome his condition and resume his role as a major influence for club and country in his own time’. The statement released by Manchester United stressed the planned nature of the operation stating it was ‘undertaken at the optimal time having achieved a period of sustained good general health’.
If this was a planned procedure, why wasn’t it mentioned prior to last week when the surgery had seemingly already taken place? Why weren’t fans notified that his return to semi-regular football would merely be a prelude to another extended period of recuperation on the sidelines? I found it difficult to dispel the sense of unease I felt about the announcement. Planned or unplanned, there has to be some doubt about whether Fletcher will be able to recapture his previous form as he seems set to miss the best past of two years of football.
Only one of Fletcher’s teams will play properly meaningful games in 2013 but it is the fans of the other who will feel the sharpest sense of loss and, from what I’ve read, Strachan was right to have confidence in his words. This isn’t to say Manchester United fans won’t lament his absence or that he wasn’t a valued player at Old Trafford. But for Scotland, he was a giant among Wigan players. At Old Trafford, Fletcher typically provided the stage for others to perform, garner the plaudits and generally obscure his own contributions.
With Scotland, however, he became the focus of attention and the player who was expected to make decisive interventions. His most notable attributes as a footballer are his excellent passing ability, energy and occasionally outstanding goals (witness his efforts against Manchester City, Everton, even the header against Chelsea). In addition, there is a selfless quality about his conduct both on and off the field that generates affection which manifests itself in his much commented upon commitment to playing for the national team. It also does most to explain the sympathetic response to a hurdle which is Fletcher’s alone to jump.
In Scotland, the other ingredient making up the reaction to the news was barely suppressed despair about what Fletcher’s absence might mean for the future of the national side. Glenn Gibbons, writing in the Scotsman, labelled Fletcher’s fellow midfielders ‘journeymen whose ordinariness is betrayed by their places of work’. Fletcher benefited immensely from the club name in brackets beside his own on the team-sheet, as though that alone might help to achieve victory for the national side.
Something similar happened during Charlie Adams’ brief and unsuccessful spell with Liverpool. If this expectation was a burden then Fletcher carried it discreetly and without complaint. For those of a certain vintage, he seems to be a reminder of previous eras when Scotland managers could regularly assemble squads full of players from England’s ‘big clubs’: on the back of his shirt it might have read ‘nostalgia’ instead of his own name. He brought an indefinable aura of something glamorous to those of us whose memories of Scotland at a major tournament are contemporaneous with free milk at school every day.
A number of recent Scotland managers have offered the presence of Scottish players in the English Premier League as evidence that things are improving for the national side. Gibbons skewered the silliness of this assertion and I would dare any Scotland fan to get genuinely excited about a team comprised of players from Wigan, West Bromwich Albion (decent season aside) and Stoke. No Scotland fan wants to wait until the end of ‘Match of the Day’, when enthusiasm and interest begin to wane for a number of reasons, for the majority of Scottish players to make an appearance.
Fletcher’s presence was something to get mildly excited about and excitement and goodwill are commodities that have been squandered happily by those at the Scottish Football Association charged with overseeing the national team. Duty and loyalty mean a great deal in football but frustration and boredom are powerful countervailing tendencies and Scotland fans have had plenty of exposure to these for too long now.
On the way to Hampden for a game shortly after Christmas, I had to ask a friend if a new Scotland manager had been appointed yet. This was perhaps a personal symptom of a more general malaise associated with the national side. I hope Fletcher returns to good health because there is much to admire about him as a man and footballer of this era. Should he be in a position to add to the 61 caps he has accumulated then it will dull the pain of supporting Scotland for a little while but more extensive treatment is needed.
Alasdair McKillop is a writer based in Edinburgh
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