The 28-year-old Kristensen suffered a torn ACL in February and was set to miss the remainder of the season. In the Eintracht Vom Main podcast of Eintracht Frankfurt, Kristensen revealed that he is currently ahead of schedule.
“Of course, I’d rather be fit, but that would probably also mean I’d be playing with a bandaged arm and wouldn’t have gone on holiday. It’s a bit of a mixed bag for me, but I’m taking the positives from it," Kristensen said.
“I’m doing really well. It’s not an easy injury, but today I’m ahead of schedule. That’s the most important thing. I still need to build things up a bit – a bit of walking, waiting, and so on - but I’ve been walking without crutches earlier than expected. That’s good.”
Football depression
During the summer of 2025, Kristensen revealed that he came close to retiring from football as he was battling depression following his time at Leeds United.
“It was really bad. It was so bad that I actually wanted to give it all up," he said in the podcast.
“It’s hard to say, because there was a period of several years where things just got worse and worse and worse. And I actually thought that football and that world weren’t for me. And I’d actually made up my mind that it wasn’t for me. And I’d lost faith that I could enjoy professional football. Or find a club abroad, outside Denmark, where I’d feel at home.”
The Danish right-back said that the sudden realisation that football might not have been for him hit him hard: “At some point, you realise it’s not quite what you imagined it would be.
"That hurts too, when you’ve worked your whole life for something or a dream or whatever. Precisely for that goal. And then you achieve it and you don’t feel that it’s right for you. Then you do, then I have the feeling that I’ve wasted a lot of time for nothing. But luckily, it wasn’t for nothing.”
Ajax time 'a mixed bag'
Kristensen's first club outside Denmark was Ajax, which he joined from FC Midtjylland for €5.5 million in January 2018. Ajax had just signed manager Erik ten Hag, and the following season, the club would play one of its best seasons in history. Despite the success, Kristensen wasn't all too happy in Amsterdam.
“It was a bit of a mixed bag. It was an important time for me. It was perhaps the best team I’ve played for in my career so far - the quality there was incredible during my time there," Kristensen said about the 2018/19 squad, which featured players like Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, Dusan Tadic, and Hakim Ziyech.
"We won a double and were seconds away from the Champions League final in 2019. I learnt so much as a footballer. I wouldn’t be sitting here today at a club like Eintracht Frankfurt without having learnt at Ajax how to play football, how to handle physical contact, the technical and tactical aspects and things like that."
Kristensen moved to Ajax as a 20-year-old, and he admitted it might not have been the right move for him at the time.
"But I wasn’t perhaps ready for such a move, either as a footballer or as a person. I was at Midtjylland, where I grew up, and it was just right for me. Then I went to Amsterdam, another huge club with lots of fans, huge pressure, high expectations, and I wasn’t perhaps ready for that. But it was still a lovely time, and I miss the lads there and the time I spent there. But it was tough too. Back then, I told myself, ‘It’s normal when you’re young.'”
The Dane moved to Red Bull Salzburg in 2019 and joined the club under manager Jesse Marsch. His play style was a major reason Kristensen moved to Austria and later followed him to Leeds United.
“Yes, I’d say so. That’s why I went to Salzburg, because I was at Ajax, where things weren’t perhaps perfect for me. But I still learnt a lot there. And then I came up with the idea and made the decision that I needed to find another club where I could play a more 'block and play' role.”