STEVEN FLETCHER has warned Premier League defenders that he would rather risk injury than soften his approach to playing top-level football for Sunderland.

Fletcher feared the worst when he had to be replaced nursing an ankle problem during Scotland’s match with Ireland earlier this month. He immediately thought he had suffered a repeat of the ankle ligament damage which required surgery in April 2013.

Scans came up clear and he was able to feature for Sunderland in last Saturday’s goalless draw at Leicester City. The level of his performance suggested he did not have any doubts surrounding his fitness.

Fletcher came closest to finding the net for Sunderland, which would have taken his tally for the season to five, and he is firmly focused on making the most of a decent start to his latest campaign after last season’s frustrations.

“Some of the boys always say to me that I’m daft for some of the tackles I go into,” said Fletcher. “But it’s just my instinct to go into them. The ball’s there. I just get on with it; I have to do it because it would take some of my game away if I didn’t.

“It’s the same with headers. It used to be I’d go up for headers and come down, land and feel my ankle straight away. But if I stop going up for headers, I’m probably not going to score!”

The relief Fletcher felt when his recent scan came up fine was huge. Given his struggles last season, when he constantly had his ankle issues in the back of his mind as he tried to find some decent form, the last thing he wanted this time around was a repeat.

“I thought I’d done it again,” he said. “That’s why I left (the Scotland camp). Gordon Strachan said I could go if I wanted to, and I wanted to because I didn’t know how bad it was. When I got the scan and everything was fine, it was just peace of mind.

“I was frustrated to miss the England game because that’s two I’ve missed with injury but I just wanted to make sure it was alright. As soon as I had put weight on it at half-time that night, I thought ‘I need to go’. I’ve not felt anything since. It was weird. It felt like it had gone again. I’ve done it once, and the operation saved me from doing it again the second time.”

Fletcher has already scored one more than he did through the whole of last season. He thinks he knows why he has returned in better form this time around.

He said: “I honestly think it was the summer off. I just did nothing for a whole month, and just chilled out. Obviously, I kept ticking over but it was nothing intense. The first week I had off I was still limping about, then for three weeks I just forgot about my ankle.

“I came back for pre-season and after about two weeks I said to the physio ‘I’ve not felt my ankle’, and that was it. Then I did my whole pre-season, I’d not had one for ages. For the past two years I’d been in the academy every day during the summer.

“This time I felt refreshed, and I honestly think it was having the summer off. Even when I was younger I used to go away with Scotland, I’d never have the summer off. Everything was just catching up on me, so I just needed to chill out.”

Fletchcer’s performances have been a boost for head coach Gus Poyet. The Sunderland boss was unable to add to his striker ranks during the summer and he has shown a reluctance to start Jozy Altidore, while he has tended to field Connor Wickham out wide.

Poyet is looking for a new striker in January. Fletcher said: “I just want to stay fit for the rest of my career now and score as many goals as I can. If that’s here, then happy days but if they bring in new strikers they might cart me off to Hamilton Accies!”

If Poyet does make progress in his search for a new forward, his transfer fund would be boosted if he offloaded £6m recruit Altidore. The American continues to struggle in England, despite fantastic international form.

Altidore’s agent, Lyle Yorks, said: “Three Italian clubs came to see him in London, as well as two French clubs and German clubs. There’s been a lot of interest in Jozy in Major League Soccer but there have not been many really serious conversations.”

Sunderland have appointed Danny Philpott as assistant academy manager. He joins the Black Cats from Everton and will oversee academy recruitment, bringing with him more than 15 years of experience.