Some eight weeks after the initial phone call to agent Martin Schoots from Brentford’s director of football Phil Giles, with the help of some of the world’s leading cardiologists and a team of lawyers to build the framework to support the biggest signing in the club’s history, Brentford have navigated through the complex legal and medical issues to offer Eriksen a route back to playing the sport he loves.

“We have taken an unbelievable opportunity to bring a world class player to Brentford,” head coach Thomas Frank said in the minutes after the move was confirmed. Those inside the club go even further, believing the move is testament to the Bees’ well-established reputation in the football world for taking risks and looking after their players, come what may.

What’s certain is there were other, ‘bigger’ clubs who had lodged their interest. But Brentford’s commitment to Eriksen, the attention-to-detail in their plan to support the Dane on and off-the-field and commitment to ongoing monitoring, was on a different level from the tentative enquiries from “half of the Premier League”.

“He’s an elite player so every club in Europe where he could play has taken a look at it but it doesn’t surprise me he’s gone there. It’s a family club, they look after their players – that’s a reputation that goes before them,” one agent said of Brentford.

Whereas one or two clubs shied away when they realised the extent of the work that would need to go into supporting Eriksen, Brentford simply got to work.

That was partly because of the enthusiasm of Frank for signing Eriksen. Brentford normally work two or three windows in advance but the club scrambled their recruitment team as soon as the Dane’s advisors signalled they’d be open to the move.

Frank made persuasive arguments in recruitment meetings. He had managed the midfielder as Denmark’s under-17 manager and sought the advice of Christian Norgaard, an international teammate. Both agreed that his mentality and ability had the potential to take Brentford to the next level. Eriksen knew that the Danish influence at the club means he will settle quickly at the Community Stadium.

Wage demands were not a problem – Eriksen has accepted a salary well within Brentford’s wage structure to get the deal done – so it was down to the club’s administrators to “make it work”.

Alongside their in-house lawyers, Brentford sought extensive independent legal advice to find out exactly what their responsibilities would be in British law. “There’s a big duty of care requirement and it’s never really been done before,” a source said.

Eriksen has been fitted with an ICD – an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator – that will monitor his heart rhythm and detect malignant arrhythmias. Brentford will need to have their medical team up-to-speed on how it works and ensure a trained member of staff is in close contact every time Eriksen steps on the grass. They consulted world class cardiologist Sanjay Sharma, the medical director for the London Marathon and English Institute of Sport, all the way through the deal.

It may be a unique situation in football but complex transfers are nothing new to the medical staff at Brentford.

They are a club that take risks and push at the margins to compete with rivals with bigger budgets – and it often causes headaches for their team of medics. There’s a running joke inside the club that when a player is summoned for a medical, the club doctors’ first question is how many ACLs he is arriving with on his CV.

Last summer, for example, they signed Yoane Wissa from Lorient just a month after he had been the victim of an acid attack.

Eriksen’s training regime since he was given the green light to return means he is physically fit, and he sailed through the standard part of the medical. Brentford, though, acknowledge he will need a few weeks to get ‘match sharp’ and he will not fly into London until later in the week after getting his second Covid jab fairly recently.

When he arrives it will be about more than just managing the training load for the Bees. The club will need a defibrillator in close quarters every time he takes to the training field, and staff qualified and trained in cardiac issues to oversee the player.

For all that, there’s “immense” satisfaction at brokering the transfer.

It is not a deal done for social media likes or profile. Instead it’s a football decision rooted in the belief that Eriksen can make a real impact in their battle to stay in the Premier League.

The five month deal can and will be extended if it works out for both parties. Eriksen’s ambition is to make the 2022 World Cup and if he quickly regains match fitness, he will play games.

Brentford play a 3-5-2 with three central midfielders – a box-to-box ‘number six’, a creator and a defensive midfielder. Eriksen could fill two of those roles, having moved into a deeper role in his latter days at Inter Milan. Brentford’s ‘Plan B’ is a 4-3-3 which is a formation which Eriksen has excelled in before.

“He wants to play in the World Cup and that’s not that far away. So the quicker he can get back to normality in a good environment the better,” a source close to the player said.

Eriksen will have a mountain of goodwill behind him when he finally returns. January’s most complex deal is also its most uplifting.

Christian will wear the #21 shirt for Brentford and sales have already been through the roof in the club shop.

 Good luck !