Scotland are hoping that Manchester United midfielder and their captain Darren Fletcher will be able to return to the Scotland national team by the start of the FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifiers.

They will begin after the Euro 2012, which will be taking place in Ukraine and Poland. Even though there is quite a long time before the World Cup qualifiers actually begins, Scotland are certainly worried about the status of their star midfielder Darren Fletcher, who has been granted an extended and undefined break due to a rare illness.

Scotland begin their qualifying campaign for the FIFA World Cup 2014 in the September of 2012. It is still not clear whether Darren Fletcher will be able to return to the first-team action by then, although medical reports suggested that he could return after one year.

Scotland will be hoping to qualify for the biggest tournament in the world after they failed to do so for the previous 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and won’t be part of the 2012 Euro Football betting because they lost out to France in the qualifiers.

Even though Darren Fletcher will certainly miss the friendly matches against Slovenia, there is every chance that he could return to the first qualifying match against Serbia, which is scheduled on September.

“He’s out for four months complete rest, and then we can reassess things. I’d be desperately hoping [to have him for the qualifiers]. He becomes such an important player for us, not just on the field, but as an example by the way he behaves himself on and off the park and his attitude,” Scotland manager Craig Levein was speaking to the media regarding the future of Darren Fletcher.

Fletcher is undoubtedly the star player at Scotland and his absence will seriously hurt their chances of making it into the prestigious tournament in South America. He is also sorely missed by his domestic club, and you can bet Manchester United are missing him right now, and hoping for a speedy comeback too.