Onward Christian soldiers

CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN joked that he can easily regain the levels of performance he reached under Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham, in a hugely optimistic assessment of his return to football with Brentford.

The Dane, who turns 30 tomorrow, became one of Europe’s top players when at Spurs, with the club demanding £130million for him when he was in his mid-20s.

Asked if he can reach that level again, Eriksen said, ‘Easy. Yes.’

Yesterday, when he was introduced to the Brentford fans ahead of the game with Palace, was eight months to the day since his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.

Eriksen insisted he has never lost faith in recovering his old skills. ‘If you don’t touch the ball for five months, you are a bit rusty and you have to get the rhythm back,’ he said. ‘In football terms, you never lose that.

‘It wasn’t a football injury. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t kick a ball high in the air any more. It was just that my heart needed to be checked.

‘The way I look at life hasn’t changed very much. I did look at my family a bit differently – of how they feel, how they act and how my kids grow up. Otherwise, I was pretty happy with the way I looked at the world before this, so that hasn’t changed.’

Eriksen could possibly play a part in Brentford’s crucial home game against Newcastle on February 26, but seems more likely to return to football as a substitute next month.