Darren Fletcher looks set to sign for West Ham after Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal confirmed the midfielder is in London for talks with the club.

Fletcher was named United vice-captain at the start of the season, but has been unable to break into Van Gaal's first team and now looks set to move to the London side.

"Darren Fletcher is now in West Ham, I believe," Van Gaal told a press conference on Friday afternoon.

"So we have to wait and see."

Van Gaal also confirmed midfielder Michael Carrick was set for four weeks out with a muscle injury.

United posted this message on their website shortly after the press conference concluded: "Van Gaal has confirmed that Michael Carrick will be out for four weeks with a muscle rupture."

The website said Ashley Young is getting "closer" to full fitness following his hamstring injury.

The news of Carrick's absence is a big blow to United, who lost the England midfielder for four months due to an ankle injury at the start of the season.

Van Gaal believes he will be losing a key player in Fletcher, who is understood to be having a medical at the east London club.

Fletcher made his United debut in 2003 and has played 342 times for the club despite missing almost two years due to the debilitating illness ulcerative colitis.

Van Gaal spoke warmly of Fletcher, who he named as a deputy - along with Carrick - to skipper Wayne Rooney at the start of the season.

"He is my third captain. He is an important guy in the dressing room. I like him as a human being and as a player. We shall miss him," Van Gaal said.

"But he has not played so many times. I think always that is the main goal of a player. We have talked about that. He prefers to play. Therefore we have helped him to go away.

"For us, it is a miss, a loss. For the club who bought him, it is another player with a lot of qualities, as a midfielder and as a captain.

"He is a very experienced player. But in that role we have another experienced player. That is the problem here."

Anderson and Wilfried Zaha have also been linked with moves away from Old Trafford before the transfer window shuts on Monday night.

Van Gaal said there will be no incomings before the deadline, though.

"No. I read every day that I am interested in players. I am not interested in players," Van Gaal said when asked if he would sign anyone before the window shuts.

"I have said we are selling or letting players go... But you never trust me."

United take on Leicester on Saturday in the return fixture of what was possibly the most embarrassing defeat of Van Gaal's time at Old Trafford.

Last September Van Gaal's team lost 5-3 against the Premier League newcomers despite being 3-1 up with 30 minutes to go.

Van Gaal is determined his side will be fully focused on the task in hand when they host the Foxes again on Saturday.

"I learned from that game that when things are happening in the wrong way you have to control the game," Van Gaal said.

"As a top club you have to control the match and when you are in a good result like 3-1 you have to control the match and you have to play and finish the match.

"In Leicester we don't finish the match and when we conceded the second goal then we were as a team not playing in our team organisation any more."