OPINION - Christian Eriksen’s return would be an uneasy watch but the moment of the season

Speaking to former colleagues of Christian Eriksen at Tottenham, including two team-mates, no one is surprised he wants to return to professional football.

Eriksen is as down to earth a player as you could hope to find, someone who genuinely does not seem like an elite footballer but loves playing the game.

One of his ex-team-mates even thought he might have chosen to play at semi-professional or amateur level if a return to the top was not possible.

Eriksen is also a brilliant athlete and supremely fit, even among pros. He has barely suffered from injuries and would regularly cover more ground than anyone else in Mauricio Pochettino’s hard-running Tottenham side.

The 29-year-old is training with Ajax’s youth team until he finds a new club and is said to have surprised everyone with his fitness levels, despite having not played competitively since suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch during Denmark’s Euro 2020 match against Finland in June.

Should he pass a series of stringent medical examinations and return to the highest level, most likely in the Premier League and with Brentford, it would be a remarkable, uplifting and moving story. His return to the pitch would be the most rousing moment of the season. Lumps in throats are guaranteed.

It would also, undoubtedly, feel uneasy. For the first handful of games, it would be hard to watch Eriksen without a degree of trepidation — particularly for anyone who has first-hand experience of heart trouble.

Fabrice Muamba, who suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch at Spurs in 2012, has already said he would struggle emotionally to watch Eriksen play again. There are questions over whether he would return as the same non-stop dynamo — which would suit Brentford’s style — or if