Man Utd news: Darren Fletcher reveals how bowel condition put his life at risk

Darren Fletcher has revealed the shocking extent of his struggles with ulcerative colitis, saying how the condition put his life at risk, that he needed to go to the toilet up to 30 times a day and made him wary of going out in public.

The Manchester United midfielder, who was diagosed with the bowel condition in 2008, was forced to miss over a year of football as he battled the disease, which ultimately led to him undergoing surgery to remove his large intestine.

Fletcher returned to football on Boxing Day last year but, in an interview with the Daily Mail, he admitted there were moments he feared for his life.

He said: "People close to me were getting worried because my bowel was in a bad way. There was a concern it could perforate at any time, almost explode inside me. I dont like talking about death but I would have been in trouble if something like that had happened."

Fletcher also revealed how he was affected by "pounding headaches and the constant need for the bathroom" when the condition was at its most severe. He needed to go to the toilet constantly and once lost so much blood he had to be taken to hospital and put on a drip. He also stopped going out to restaurants because "I might need to go to the toilet five or six times".

He was also left with a condition known as 'moon-face', when the face becomes bloated even while the sufferer is losing weight, and that he kept the condition secret from his teammates for three years before telling them after a Champions League game against Basel in Dec 2011.

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Man Utd news: Darren Fletcher reveals how bowel condition put his life at risk