Darren Fletcher played with Cristiano Ronaldo during his time at Manchester United, but the Scottish midfielder deemed another of his former team-mates to be even fitter
Darren Fletcher boldly identified a different former team-mate to Cristiano Ronaldo who he feels is even fitter.
Fletcher made 342 appearances for Manchester United, securing five Premier League titles and the Champions League. Team-mates like Ryan Giggs and Ronaldo were renowned for their peak physical fitness, with CR7 still showcasing his remarkable physique at 40 while playing for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
However, when asked by FourFourTwo magazine to name the fittest player he’s ever encountered, Fletcher surprised many by picking James McClean, his former colleague at West Brom. In the 2017 interview, he said McClean would “blow him out of the water” in a fitness battle.
He said: “James McClean is probably the fittest guy I’ve ever come across in football. I’ve played with a lot fit players.
“I used to think of myself back in the day as one of the fittest box-to-box but I think James would blow me out the water. [He had] speed and unbelievable endurance. He really is a freak and another one who works incredibly hard at it.”
Fletcher, who played with McClean at West Brom from 2015 to 2017 and later at Stoke City, saw first-hand the work ethic of the Republic of Ireland international, who boasts 103 caps and 158 Premier League appearances.
Now 35, McClean is still showcasing his talent at Wrexham in League One, the club owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and McElhenney, where he is aiming for a second successive promotion. Despite his tendency to court controversy, no once can ever question his fitness levels and work-rate.
Ex-United goalkeeper Ben Foster, who also shared the Old Trafford dressing room with Ronaldo, played alongside McClean too. He agrees with Fletcher’s assessment of Fletcher, saying on his own Fozcast podcast: “I think James McClean is the hardest-working player I have ever come across in my life.
“The very first day that he signed [for Wrexham], I got in there probably an hour before the rest of the lads got in. He’s on this SkiErg [fitness machine] sweating his tree off. I’m just like, ‘you alright, mate’ and he looks at me as if to say, ‘not now, I’m dying’.
“He gives me a thumbs up and carries on. He’s straight on to the battle rope, then he’s doing a circuit. This is at like eight in the morning. I’m like, ‘you’re an absolute animal’. That is James McClean in a nutshell. He was like that every day. Genuinely, every day.”
