'Don't worry about my heart, I don't tackle!': Eriksen calm on return

The Brentford shirt Christian Eriksen held up after stepping on to the club’s pitch had the word ‘Hollywood’ printed across the front, but nothing could have been less appropriate.

‘What is it? A big announcement or something?’ he said, grinning as the club presented him as their player. ‘Apparently I’ve come back. Now I’m going to retire as well! I’m done with this!’

An hour or so of conversation with him was full of levity and self-deprecation like this.

About how his new manager, Thomas Frank, had been too polite to say his first training session was best forgotten. About how fans need not worry about his heart because ‘I don’t do tackles’. About how his family will not be the only ones present when he finally returns to the field. ‘I think the whole world will be there,’ he predicted.

This appears to be Eriksen’s way of providing calm reassurance to those anxious about him stepping into the relentless environment of the Premier League for a side fighting to stay in it, after five straight defeats. Putting the minds of others at rest has become part of his daily life now.

When he met Frank on Sunday, ahead of an introduction to his new team-mates, Eriksen asked for the chance to address the squad. When that moment came, he stood up and told them not to hold back from challenges on him in training. 

‘Don’t go easy on me because if there was any concern I wouldn’t be here,’ said. ‘If there are any questions, you can always ask me.’

Eriksen’s conversations with his family sound like the toughest of all, though. One of the most striking observations the 29-year-old made was that his fiancée, Sabrina Kvist Jensen, felt anxiety on that fateful night in Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium in June which he, oblivious to what was