Erik ten Hag has confirmed that Christian Eriksen will be in the the Manchester United squad to face Everton on Saturday.
The Danish midfielder has been ruled out with an ankle injury since United's FA Cup fourth round win over Reading at the end of January. Eriksen had been on the end of a poor challenge from former Liverpool star Andy Carroll.
It was a tackle that left Ten Hag furious, and Eriksen on the sidelines for more than two months. But he has finally been able to return to training and is in line to be part of the Red Devils' squad which will host struggling Everton, with Ten Hag delighted to see him back.
"Luke Shaw is not available for tomorrow. We have to see about the progress for the coming week, but the good news is Eriksen is back in training and he will be in the squad," the United boss said.
"I was so angry about the tackle. He was away, first we feared we had lost him for the whole season but he worked very well. The medical department did really well and in togetherness he is already returning to the squad.
"He's now available for the final stages of the season. From the first, it was a really bad tackle and it was also a really bad injury. He's a little bit ahead of schedule, so we're happy with that."
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Ten Hag has renewed his fury at Carroll for that infamous tackle on Eriksen. The Reading striker managed to avoid even a booking after the challenge, though he was eventually sent off for two subsequent yellow cards.
Despite seeing the Englishman eventually get punished, the United boss blasted Carroll. He went as far as to insist that the tackle had no place in football, calling for restrictions to be set to protect players.
“I'm disappointed about that,” said Ten Hag after the game. “I think football has to set limits, restrictions, that protect the players. What football wants is the best players to be available on the pitch.
“This is a tackle - and the two tackles after it – that don’t belong on a pitch, because there is a high risk of injuring your colleague. So, it's worse and I'm left wondering about that.
“I'm also wondering more, when we were at Crystal Palace, there was an elbow on Lisandro Martinez. I don't believe there was even a whistle for a free kick and I'm wondering about such things, because it's a risk of injury for the player.”
Asked if he felt Carroll had deliberately tried to hurt United's players, Ten Hag added: “I made my view about that. I think it was quite clear what my thoughts were.”
