Christian Eriksen knew he would play football again 'two days' after cardiac arrest

Christian Eriksen says he knew he would play football again just two days after suffering a cardiac arrest at last year's European Championship as he prepares to make his return to the game with Brentford.

The football world held its collective breath last June when the Denmark playmaker collapsed on the pitch against Finland.

On his way to hospital in Copenhagen he told his wife Sabrina that he would probably never play football again.

But Eriksen, 29, was fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and doctors told him there was a chance he could return to top-level sport.

Eriksen was unable to continue his career with Inter Milan because Serie A rules do not permit footballers fitted with the device to play in Italy but he signed for Premier League side Brentford on the final day of the January transfer window.

Speaking to club media for the first time on Monday, he said: "On the way to the hospital I told Sabrina I may as well leave my boots here.

"It changed two days later. It was in the moment. I recognised what happened to me later on that night and the next few days.

"Then all the tests started and all the knowledge started to come in and all the questions were being asked 'Can I do this? Can I do that?' and listen to the doctors."

Players react after kicking the ball out in the 10th minute of the match to applaud Denmark's Christian Eriksen. Reuters

Eriksen, who has signed a contract until the end of the season with the Premier League club, said he had many tests to assess how his heart was reacting to physical training: the results were all positive.

"Then, every month I could really push it and then I could play," he said. "But the feeling of getting to hear from the doctors that even with an