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MAROUANE Fellaini has reiterated his desire to play in the Champions League with Everton FC.

The midfielder is believed to have a buy out clause in his current contract which states that he could be bought for around £23.5m by a Champions League club and speculation has persisted that Chelsea are ready to take advantage of the situation at the end of the season.

But Fellaini - who is fighting to be fit for Sunday's trip to Old Trafford after he was an unused sub for Belgium during their midweek 2-1 win over Slovakia - has played down talk of a specific escape agreement, even if he admitted that he is aware of all the speculation around his future.

"I have heard about Chelsea monitoring me, but I have never spoken with them," Fellaini told Belgian media outlet sportwereld.be.

"‘Throughout my time at Everton, there has been word on the grapevine of interest from some of England’s top teams, but I have never personally sat round the table with any of them.

"If Chelsea want me, they need to come up with something, but they have not done so far. For now, I am very happy with Everton. We are fifth, and if we can climb just one more place, and stay there, we can look forward to playing in the Champions’ League.

"Would that make me stay? Maybe yes, because Everton are the team who brought me to England. I have a very good relationship with the manager and my team-mates, and the club are like my family.

"People are talking about Chelsea as if I have already signed, but I am an Everton player, and maybe I will finish the three years left on my contract. If I do end up leaving, it would be up to the club to decide on the price. I have all sorts of clauses in my contract, but there is no fixed fee for releasing me.

"The Premier League is the best in the world, but I don’t have a dream team I want to go to. If I do leave Everton, it would be to a club who really want me and a manager who has really good plans for me.

"People seem to think that Eden Hazard’s presence at Chelsea might tip it their way. He is a very good friend, but so too are Mousa Dembele and Christian Benteke, so that wouldn’t influence anything."

Reports in Belgium criticised Fellaini for spending Sunday night, and the early hours of Monday morning, at trendy nightspot Carre, midway between Brussels and Antwerp, after flying to Belgium in the wake of Everton’s 3-3 draw with Aston Villa.

But Belgium coach Marc Wilmots insisted he had no concerns after Fellaini reported in on time at 2pm that afternoon, and the player himself could not understand all the fuss.

"I scored twice against Villa in what was a very tough game, so just tell me something. If you have a particularly hectic week in the office, wouldn’t you go out at the end of it and unwind a bit?

"It is just the same in football, and I’m not the only one to have gone out after a hard match.

‘I comply with all my responsibilities as a professional footballer, so in my private life and free time, I do what I want. In England, I don’t go out all that much. The games are so physically demanding that I need a lot of rest, and there is also the problem of people wanting to come up and speak to you all the time."

Fellaini admitted his hopes of facing United are in the balance as he battles to recover from a hip problem.

"It still hurts, and it was impossible for me to play against Slovakia,’ he said. "My health is the most important thing, but if I can make it, I certainly will, because I love playing against United.

I scored in a 1-0 win against them at Goodison on the opening weekend of the season, and it was a little bit my match. I couldn’t have done it without my team-mates, though, and I hope to be out there with them again on Sunday. We will just have to wait and see."