Thomas Frank has revealed that Christian Eriksen could be ready to make his first start since his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 when Brentford face Norwich in the Premier League on Saturday.
Eriksen made his comeback as a substitute in last weekend’s 2-0 home defeat by Newcastle, 259 days after collapsing during Denmark’s clash with Finland at Parken Stadium last June.
Frank has revealed that the 30-year-old midfielder has successfully emerged from an important staging post in his return to playing regularly again.
“Christian’s good. He keeps progressing in terms of his fitness and getting good training minutes into him,” Frank said.
“It was not a box ticked, but I think it was very important to get that game played. Now hopefully for everyone involved we can focus on football.”
When asked if Eriksen will be picked in the starting line-up against Norwich, Frank replied: “You’ll find out tomorrow. Of course I’m interested in getting him on to the pitch as much as possible.”
In a twist of fate, Saturday’s Carrow Road showdown will be overseen by Anthony Taylor, the referee who took charge of the Euro 2020 match
Taylor was praised for the way he handled the cardiac arrest after his understanding of the urgency of the situation led to medical attention arriving promptly.
Frank said: “I’ve mentioned it to Christian. I said ‘do you know who the ref is?’. He didn’t know….and then he said ‘ah is it Anthony? How funny, what a coincidence’.
“There would be a time anyway when Anthony would have refereed Christian going forward.”
Brentford are enduring their worst run since Frank took charge in 2018 with seven defeats in eight matches sending them into Premier League freefall.
Norwich boss Dean Smith has described the clash between the two relegation contenders as a “must not lose” and Frank agrees the stakes are high.
“I’d definitely prefer to win. We’re all aware that we’d like to get that win to get things back on track,” he said.
“The beautiful thing in football is that you can’t plan for that, even bigger teams can’t be sure 100 per cent to get three points.
“We need to do our best to be brave, cool and aggressive. We have to put a very good performance in and then expect and hope that we do enough to get three points.
“I’m aware that we are in similar situations and that a point or win would be big for both teams.
“It’s the same for both clubs so there is a lot at stake, but the more you can play it as a normal game, the better.
“I’m not blind, I’m not stupid – I’m aware that we need to get the win. Hopefully we’ll get that on Saturday.”
