Thomas Frank says Christian Eriksen has “blended in fantastically” with his new Brentford teammates, but suggested his return to competitive action could still be a number of weeks away.
Eriksen signed as a free agent on transfer deadline day last month after being released by Inter Milan and trained with the Bees squad for the first time on Monday.
The Dane has not played since suffering a cardiac arrest at last summer’s European Championships but is building towards a comeback after agreeing a contract until the end of the season with the west Londoners.
“[It was] very good to see him out there,” Frank said. “I spoke to Christian after training, he was just pleased and happy to be part of a team and club again doing what he loves most. You could see that.
“We know he’s a humble, down to earth, quality player but he’s coming with a natural presence, without being big-headed. He just tries things and wants to play football. The way he is, he’s blended in fantastically with the group and our culture here.
“It’s good to see him, he needs training to get up to match pace but he’s in a fine place and I’m pleased with what we’ve seen so far.”
Frank confirmed the midfielder will play no part in tomorrow’s Premier League clash with Manchester City and is reluctant to put an exact date on his return at this stage.
“It’s something we’ll constantly speak with him about,” he added. “We have a good set up around all the players, our players, in house. We know them and of course we have all [Eriksen’s] data and injury history so we know all that, but to know all the small bits about him, about his body, to come back to top pace again we need to speak to him daily and that’ll be an ongoing process over the next one, two, three weeks.
“I would love to say it’s going to be in one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks’ time, but I would like to see how he is. We want to hit the perfect balance where we push it but he needs to be in a good place because he hasn’t trained with a team for seven months and it’s important that he doesn’t get a minor injury and get a setback.
“He’s looking good but we’re also pretty sure we need to get match minutes into him in a friendly before we put him out there.”
