Christian Eriksen has been back threading passes through Premier League defences for the best part of a year but there was still something sublime in the fact he was able to sit here, at a modest sports facility on the hazy outskirts of Doha, previewing a World Cup. The thought he might do so had, in the bluntest terms, not crossed anyone’s mind in the aftermath of his cardiac arrest last June but there is a tantalising sense the story may only be part way through.
Could Eriksen and Denmark go all the way? That is their intention in Qatar and it would represent a footballing, not to mention personal, comeback for the ages. It would also back up the progress of a team that hovers just below the established favourites but has shown enough, before and since the return of its talisman, to suggest the final step may be possible.