But now the spectre of retirement is looming after Ferguson painted a bleak picture of the 28-year-old’s fight to combat a chronic bowel complaint that has been bothering Fletcher since March 2011 and forced him to take a full break from the game last November.

“Darren has not started training with us,” he said.

“Obviously he has got challenges and we are happy to be patient with him. But he won’t be starting the season.

“It is unfortunate because he is such a magnificent professional and such a nice lad.

“If it doesn’t work for him he knows he has a position at the club.”

When it was confirmed Fletcher was taking an indefinite sabbatical, Scotland manager Craig Levein expressed hope his skipper would be fit to lead his country into their 2014 World Cup qualification campaign.

That is not going to happen.

Instead, after spending the second half of last season doing some of the coaching duties that had been assigned to Paul Scholes until he performed a retirement U-turn mid-way through the campaign, a more full-time role could be on the cards.

Always one of the more studious members of the United squad, Fletcher does seem the type who would slot into a backroom role fairly comfortably once he had completed his coaching badges.

However, if he is forced to call time on his career, it would be a cruel way to end it.

Fletcher was restricted to just 10 appearances last term, his last coming against Benfica at Old Trafford in November.

He turned out just twice in the final weeks of the previous campaign, when the ’virus’ first took hold, costing him a chance of finally appearing in a Champions League final, after he was overlooked for the 2008 triumph over Chelsea in Moscow and then suspended the following year, when United lost to Barcelona.