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LONDON — Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen joined Premier League club Brentford on Monday, seven months after he suffered a cardiac arrest during a European Championship match.
Eriksen, who collapsed during the game against Finland in Copenhagen and was given life-saving CPR treatment in front of shocked fans and teammates, has signed for Brentford as a free agent for the rest of the season.
✍ Welcome to Brentford, @ChrisEriksen8 #BrentfordFC #EriksenJoins pic.twitter.com/O8h5WbdUZ2
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) January 31, 2022
"I'm happy to announce I've signed for Brentford and can't wait to get started and hopefully see you all very soon," Eriksen said in a video post.
The former Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan player is now fitted with a special heart-starting device known as an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD).
Eriksen, 29, has not played a competitive match since his collapse, although he has been training with his former club Ajax Amsterdam to build up his fitness.
Inter Milan terminated his contract in December because the ICD device is not permitted in Serie A.
Eriksen played 26 games for Inter as they won the Italian top-flight title in 2021 for the first time in 11 years.
He played 226 Premier League games for Tottenham whose manager Antonio Conte said this month that the "door was always open" for him at the club.
Welcome back to the #PL, @ChrisEriksen8!
Ready for more moments of magic, @BrentfordFC? pic.twitter.com/thmYh5oM6e— Premier League (@premierleague) January 31, 2022
Eriksen will be re-united with Brentford manager Thomas Frank who supervised the Denmark Under-17 team he played for.
"I am looking forward to working with Christian again. It has been a while since I last coached him and a lot has happened since then," Frank said in a statement.
"... We have taken an unbelievable opportunity to bring a world class player to Brentford. He hasn't trained with a team for seven months but has done a lot of work on his own.
"He is fit but we will need to get him match fit and I am looking forward to seeing him work with the players and staff to get back towards his highest level."
Eriksen, capped 109 times by Denmark, was given the green light by doctors last month to resume his playing career and is aiming to be available for the World Cup.
"Brentford fans can rest assured that we have undertaken significant due diligence to ensure that Christian is in the best possible shape to return to competitive football," Frank said.
"Now Christian has made the decision to sign for Brentford, all parties want to focus fully on football."
Things you absolutely love to see ❤#BrentfordFC #EriksenJoins pic.twitter.com/FhvDlMLAxL
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) January 31, 2022
Brentford have enjoyed a positive first season in the Premier League and are 14th in the table, although they have lost their last four league games and are in danger of being sucked into the relegation battle.
It is unclear whether Eriksen will be available for Brentford's next game, an FA Cup fourth-round tie against Everton at Goodison Park this weekend.
(Writing by Martyn Herman, Reporting by Silvia Recchimuzzi in Gdansk and Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Alex Richardson and Ed Osmond)
