Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ryan Mason already knows all about one Manchester United player before the two teams meet in the Premier League on Thursday evening.
Mason, 31, played 59 times alongside now-United man Christian Eriksen in midfield for Tottenham between 2014 and 2016 before the academy graduate left his boyhood club to sign for Hull City. Only Harry Kane (67) played more matches alongside his new boss during the player's career.
Six months later, Mason sustained a fractured skull following a clash of heads with Gary Cahill during a match against Chelsea, which eventually forced the midfielder to retire and move into coaching. Eriksen, of course, faced the prospect of a similar scenario after going into cardiac arrest during Euro 2020 but was able to return to playing after being fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator device (ICD).
