Christian Eriksen is set to return to Tottenham on Thursday when his Manchester United side make the trip down to north London in the Carabao Cup quarter-final.

Eriksen, 32, left Tottenham to join Inter Milan for £16.9million in January 2020, ending a six-and-a-half year spell with the club. During his time at Spurs, Eriksen scored 69 goals and added 88 assists in 305 appearances and helped them reach the Champions League final and finish second in the Premier League twice.

Despite his success, Eriksen departed Spurs on a sour note. The Dane claimed that he wanted to leave in June 2019 as his contract entered into its final 12 months. It was an admission that made some fans turn on him, while others understood why the former Ajax man was being so honest about his future.

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Following his exit from Tottenham, Eriksen opened up on the frustration of his contract situation and that he had grown tired of the speculation surrounding his future. Speaking to the BBC in February 2020, Eriksen said: "But that is the thing. If you have a short contract, you will be the black sheep.

"Of course, I did the interview. I was very honest. I felt I had to be honest. I didn't want to hide like a lot of players do. Everyone is different. I was honest. I wanted to say it out loud.

"I did get the blame for a lot of stuff, for being the bad guy. I read I was the bad person in the changing room, that ever since I said I wanted to leave, it was no good me being there. To be honest, over the last few years, if anything came up, any player would think about leaving but I was the guy who said it publicly."

Fast forward almost five years and Eriksen has been through it all. While playing for Denmark at Euro 2020, he suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch and was rushed to hospital. Fortunately, Eriksen was stabilised and later was fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator device following surgery.

It enable the Dane to return to football in February 2022, though he did have to leave Inter Milan due to Serie A rules, which did not allow players wearing ICD devices to play. Having been linked with a shock return to Tottenham, Eriksen instead made the switch across London to Thomas Frank's Brentford.

Eriksen impressed for the Bees during the second-half of the 2021/22 season and was tipped to stay there following the end of his short-term contract. However, he opted to sign for United instead after Erik ten Hag was appointed as their new head coach, signing a three-year deal in the process.

He has since made 86 appearances for United, helping them win the Carabao Cup and FA Cup during his first two years at the club and could feature against former club Tottenham on Thursday. Eriksen hasn't made an appearance under new United boss Ruben Amorim so far, having been an unused substitute six times.

There is uncertainty over Eriksen's current contract at the moment. He has just over six months to run on his deal at United and can talk to non-English clubs over a pre-contract agreement in January. Issuing his verdict on his future in September, Eriksen said: "I feel very good being at United.

"If they told me to leave I would leave, but I didn't hear that.

"I'm also a guy who likes being in a place where my family is settled and at the same time being in a place where I can benefit and play. That's always going to be my aim. There's one year left [on United contract] so my focus is going to be on this year, going full out and see what happens afterwards."