United in Fletcher fitness fright

Posted Sunday, July 10, 2011 by The Sun

DARREN FLETCHER will skip Manchester United's US tour as he races to be fit for the new season.

Fletcher was sidelined for most of United's title run in last term after a virus triggered major weight loss.

Alex Ferguson's men head across the pond on Monday for a gruelling three-week trip.

But Fletcher has been told to stay at home and work on his fitness at the club's Carrington training HQ instead.

A club spokesman said: "Darren will remain at Carrington to undergo an individualised conditioning programme given he missed a large proportion of last season.

"This will help him catch up fitness-wise to the levels of the rest of the team.

"We tried to accelerate things but we want to give him the best opportunity to be fully fit for the new season.

"We feel a reduction in the amount of time Darren spends travelling will help him achieve this."

United have pencilled in Paul Scholes' testimonial against New York Cosmos on August 5 as a potential return.

The rest of the squad open their tour against New England Revolution in Boston on Wednesday before heading to Seattle, Chicago, New Jersey and Washington.

SQUAD: Anders Lindegaard, Ben Amos, Sam Johnstone, Rafael, Fabio, Nemanja Vidic, Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Nani, Anderson, Ryan Giggs, Ji-sung Park, Gabriel Obertan, Mame Biram Diouf, Federico Macheda, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov, Ashley Young, Chris Smalling, Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, David de Gea, Phil Jones, Javier Hernandez.