Christian Eriksen is set to captain Denmark at the Parken Stadium as he makes an emotional return to the arena where he suffered a horrifying cardiac arrest during Euro 2020.
The 30-year-old will wear the armband for his nation's friendly with Serbia in Copenhagen on Tuesday night. It will be the first time Eriksen has played at the Parken Stadium since June 12 when he collapsed against Finland and "died for five minutes".
The midfielder has made a remarkable recovery since the incident and recently resumed club football back in the Premier League with Brentford. Eriksen enjoyed a magical moment at the weekend as he netted with his first touch on his Denmark return in a 4-2 defeat to the Netherlands, but admitted Tuesday will be even more special.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Serbia clash, Eriksen said: “I think it’s something that you can't prepare for. It’s just going to be one of the moments, the reception.
“Obviously in Holland it was very big, I expect it’s going to be even bigger here. It was the place it happened and people will see it, talk about it, then it’s back to normal.
"They're going to have a new memory. It’s going to be special, I’m looking forward to it.”
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Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who has been deputising for Denmark's injured captain Simon Kjaer, generously offered Eriksen the armband ahead of Tuesday's friendly, Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand confirmed. He revealed: "Christian will be captain tomorrow.
"And to that I can also say that before I started thinking about it, it was Kasper Schmeichel who came to me. Simon, Kasper and Christian are three different people, but with fantastic leadership qualities and one of the things that characterises good leadership is that you are generous and want the best for each other.”
Eriksen made his long-awaited return to the pitch in Brentford's 2-0 defeat to Newcastle in late February. The former Tottenham midfielder joined the Bees on a free transfer back in January, having been released by Inter Milan last December.
The current Serie A champions were given little alternative but to let Eriksen go after he was subsequently fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) following the collapse. Italian regulations state that footballers wearing such a device are prohibited from playing.
Eriksen then made an emotional return to the Denmark national team fold in the Netherlands on Saturday, scoring with his first touch, moments after coming off the bench at half-time in Amsterdam. Following the match, Schmeichel admitted he believes it was destiny his compatriot made a scoring return for his country.
“It was inevitable for me,” the Foxes stopper told reporters. “It just had to happen - of course it did, with his quality - it’s something that if you take it out of any team, you’ll miss it. Having faced him... I know what he’s capable of and there was no one else I wanted it to fall to.”
