Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick on Saturday took to Twitter to reveal that he hasn’t played football since September because of an irregular heart rhythm.

The 36-year-old has only played one match for United this season – in the League Cup against Burton on September 20.

In a post on Twitter early Saturday, Carrick said that he felt “strange during the second half of the Burton game”, following which he underwent a series of tests in hospital.

“It turned out to be due to an irregular heart rhythm which has been fully investigated and I had a procedure called a cardiac ablation,” Carrick’s note said.

An ablation is a treatment that aims to control or correct certain types of abnormal heart rhythms, according to the British Heart Foundation. “It uses either heat or freezing on the area of your heart that’s causing the abnormal heart rhythm,” a post on the foundation’s website said.

The Englishman added that he was now back to training and was working on his fitness, with an aim to “be back in contention for selection soon”.