Manchester United’s Darren Fletcher has returned to the Scotland squad for the first time since November 2012 after battling back from a chronic bowel condition.
The 30-year-old who was brought up in Dalkeith has finally regained his place at Old Trafford but Scotland assistant manager Mark McGhee said that Fletcher was not a certain starter for Wednesday’s friendly in Poland and manager Gordon Strachan had yet to decide whether he would regain the captaincy from Celtic midfielder Scott Brown.
His rival for the centre midfield position Barry Bannan said that he was delighted that Fletcher was back.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s friendly against Poland, Bannan said: “I was young when I first broke through and he was one I was kind of in awe of and looked up to. He made it so easy for me. It’s good to have him back. He’s the captain and the leader.”
“There’s a lot of good players in this squad and some good players have been left out, so I would say it’s the strongest so far. Every game, you’re fighting for your place. There’s a lot of good players here. It’s a strong squad now.”
“We have had good results recently. We’re riding high on confidence and hopefully we can keep that going.
“It’s come around that they’re going to be our group, so we’ll get a good look at them and I’m sure they’ll get a good look at us too, but it could give us that edge if we get one over on them and put a good performance.”
The Poles are also in Scotland’s group for the forthcoming Euro 2016 qualifiers.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
