Christian Eriksen’s return to Premier League football with Brentford will take a “few weeks”, according to Thomas Frank. The manager said his Danish compatriot, while physically capable, may need that time to gain match fitness and mental readiness.
Eriksen is coming back from the cardiac arrest suffered while playing at last year’s Euro 2020 tournament. Frank hopes to revive the career of a player he worked with at youth level and believes Eriksen can be “potentially the greatest signing” in Brentford’s history.
“What happened to him in June was crazy, a shock for us all,” Frank said. “So to see him out on the pitch is going to be a big day. I am glad that Christian and his family are fine and comfortable with him playing football again.”
Eriksen’s contract until the end of the season was confirmed on Monday, Internazionale having released him because Serie A clubs are not allowed to field players with the cardioverter-defibrillator he now has implanted. The 29-year-old former Tottenham and Ajax player has ambitions to play at the 2022 World Cup and has trained with Jong Ajax and the third-tier Swiss club FC Chiasso.
“Christian will arrive on Sunday, and he will train with the team on Monday,” said Frank. “[He] has a solid physical foundation and has been doing all sorts of tests. He has been running a lot, training a lot, so he has done quite a lot over the last few months so his foundation is fine, but another thing is to get up to match speed.
“It is hard to say when he is available. I will know a lot more after Monday. I hope weeks, a few weeks, but I don’t know. I am much more clever when I have seen him train.”
Frank said he was unconcerned by the perceived risk Eriksen may be taking or the presence of the implant. “I am not a doctor, but the specialists that have seen him and met him and tested him know that everything is perfect,” he said. “I know Christian and his family will not take the slightest risk that something could happen if he is training or playing a football match. For me it is down to the mental part of it, down to getting back to the rhythm, playing football at a top, top level.”
Eriksen chose to return to the city he played in from 2013 to 2020 with Spurs. “With this crazy experience he chose to do something he knows: the Premier League, London, a club where he knows some of his teammates, and he has a connection to me,” said Frank. “Imagine speaking to our fans when we were in League One and saying we would be in the Premier League in six or seven years’ time and he would be playing for Brentford. It is a little miracle.”
