Danish international Christian Eriksen is set to make a much awaited comeback to professional football after suffering a cardiac arrest in July 2021 during the European Championships.
Brentford have now offered Christian Eriksen the chance of a return to the Premier League as the playmaker assesses his options for a competitive comeback.
29 year old Eriksen became a free agent when Italian club Internazionale terminated his contract last month. He is keen for a return to top-level action ahead of the World Cup and Brentford have moved to offer him a six-month deal, which would have the potential to be extended.
Should Eriksen accept, he would return to the English top flight two years after leaving Tottenham for the Serie A club.
Eriksen is not short of suitors and, despite Brentford’s interest, no decision has yet been made over his future. A move to the west London side could be appealing given the heavy Danish presence in their squad.
Eight of their players are from Denmark and so is the head coach, Thomas Frank, who has steered them to 14th place in their first Premier League season and worked with Eriksen in the national youth team set-up.
Eriksen received lifesaving treatment on the pitch in Copenhagen after his cardiac arrest and was fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator device (ICD).
His departure from Inter owed to the fact Serie A rules do not allow players with an ICD to compete but Eriksen has been training at Odense, his old club in Denmark, and said this month that he feels ready to come back.
“My goal is to play in the World Cup in Qatar,” he said. “I want to play. That’s been my mindset all along. It’s a goal, a dream. Whether I’ll be picked is another thing. But it’s my dream to come back. I’m sure I can because I don’t feel any different. Physically, I’m back in top shape.”
Eriksen has spent some time training on his own at former club Odense, and was recently seen practising alone at Swiss club Chiasso.
He accepts that playing for his country again is “still some time away – so until then I’m just going to play football and prove that I’m back at the same level.” Denmark have already secured their qualification for the World Cup, which begins in November.
In the TV interview, Eriksen also spoke about how he “died for five minutes” on the pitch in June, and thanked the doctors who saved him, his teammates and well-wishers.
“At the hospital, they kept saying I’d received more and more flowers,” he said. “It was weird because I didn’t expect people to send flowers because I’d died for five minutes.”
Eriksen spent six-and-a-half seasons at Tottenham before joining Inter, and the player’s agent, Martin Schoots, has said a return to play in England would “absolutely feel like coming home.”
“It is going really well for Christian,” Schoots added. “He had all the medical checks just before Christmas and the results were so good, we expect him to be involved in group training with a team some time later in January.”