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).
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Their time together at Tottenham is recalled fondly by Mason, who spoke highly of Eriksen while working as a Premier League pundit during the 2018/19 season. "He's a top man, a top professional," he said about Eriksen on BT Sport in November 2018. "He's one of those that, if you've got young kids that want to learn and learn from the best, then he's the guy you send them up to watch because in training every day he's 100 per cent, and you can see it from his performance."
Those comments came four years after Eriksen shared a similar sentiment about his future midfield partner, despite admitting to not knowing who Mason was initially. “I didn’t know Mason when I first came, but he has really impressed me with good he is on the ball,” a young Eriksen told talkSPORT back in 2014. “In pre-season, he showed how good he can be.”
That prophecy proved true, with Mason making 70 appearances for Spurs. On Thursday, the two will meet as opponents for the second time. During that previous meeting, Eriksen's side won 3-0, with the Denmark international scoring twice at White Hart Lane.
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