Man United and Scotland midfielder Darren Fletcher was asked by Scotland manager George Burley not to play in the Community Shield match. Fletcher did play and he is also saying that he didn’t choose Man United over Scotland.

Burley reportedly told his Scotland squad to focus on the World Cup Qualifiers and not the pre-season friendlies. Fletcher believes that if he said no to playing in the Community Shield game then it would put him down the pecking order at Old Trafford.

"The Scotland manager obviously asked me about not playing but I want to play as many games as I can," Fletcher told the Daily Record.

"I've got to try to win a place in the United team and there is a lot of competition around the squad."

"I don't want to be skipping United games but I was always going to be available for Scotland," he added.

"That was always going to be the case.

"There was never any doubt. But I've also always got to concentrate on my club career and they [international and club career] both go hand in hand."

I don’t think players should be put in that position, I know that playing for your club is important and so is playing for your country. If Fletcher wants to carry on playing for Scotland then he needs first team football, if he wants first team football then he has to play matches for United.