Euro 2020: Denmark doctor says Christian Eriksen suffered cardiac arrest

Denmark’s team doctor Morten Boesen has confirmed Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest and that “he was gone” prior to being resuscitated.

Eriksen collapsed on Saturday during the first half of Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 match against Finland before being treated on the pitch and taken to hospital.

The former Tottenham playmaker is “stable” and set to remain in hospital, the Danish football federation has said.

Christian Eriksen was carried off after collapsing during the match
Friedemann Vogel

After it was later confirmed the Inter Milan player was stable, his team-mates agreed to resume the fixture in Copenhagen, with Finland claiming a 1-0 win thanks to Joel Pohjanpalo’s 59th-minute goal.

After Eriksen collapsed, his team-mates formed a shield around the 29-year-old while he received treatment and fans from both sets of countries chanted the name of the midfielder.

Fabrice Muamba, who came close to death nine years ago when his heart stopped for 78 minutes during a match for Bolton against Tottenham, said he was relieved to hear Eriksen was stable.

“The incident yesterday makes you realise how fragile life is and how quickly you can lose a loved one,” Muamba said on Twitter.

At a press conference arranged by the Danish Football Federation on Sunday afternoon, Boesen said: “He was gone. We did cardiac resuscitation, it was a cardiac arrest.

“How close were we to losing him? I don’t know, but we got him back after one defib, so that’s quite fast.”

“We don’t have any explanation why it happened. The details about what happened I am not quite sure of because I am not a cardiologist, I will leave that to the experts. I didn’t see it live, only on screens afterwards.”

The team doctor revealed that Denmark’s players and staff were visited by a psychologist on Saturday night, and in hindsight feels the game should not have resumed.

“I don’t think the right decision was to play the game,” Boesen said. “We have had help from a psychological point of view at the hotel last night.

“Everyone expressed their feelings and how they saw the situation, and everyone was pleased we did this and talked it through.

“We really appreciated the professional help we have had from the outside.”

Denmark players created a shield as Christian Eriksen received medical attention on the pitch
Friedemann Vogel

Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand agreed that the match should not have been completed after the incident, and that the squad will try to use what happened as motivation for their next game against Belgium on Thursday.

“No we should not have played,” said Hjulmand. “We will try tomorrow to establish normality as much as possible. Players have different reactions to shocks and trauma but we will try to get back to normal as much as possible."