Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest, the reason why he collapsed in Denmark's Euro 2020 match versus Finland on Saturday, according to the Danish team doctor Morten Boesen.
Today, Eriksen says he is "fine under the circumstances" and posted a photo of himself on a hospital bed with a thumbs-up as he wrote his first message since suffering a heart attack.
A midfielder for Denmark, 29-year-old Eriksen suddenly collapsed shortly before half-time in Saturday's Group B game against Finland as he prepared to receive a throw-in, and had to be resuscitated on the pitch.
Denmark's team doc Morten Boesen said Eriksen was unconscious when he reached the player on the pitch, "When I got to him he was on his side, he was breathing, I could feel a pulse, but suddenly that changed and we started to give him CPR. The help came really fast from the medical team and the rest of the staff with their co-operation, and we did what we had to do and managed to get Christian back."
"How close were we to losing him? I don't know, but we got him back after one defib [defibrillation] so that's quite fast. The examinations that have been done so far look fine. We don't have an explanation to why it happened."
The players agreed to resume the match only when they were informed that Eriksen was awake in the hospital, with play restarting nearly two hours after the collapse of the former Tottenham player.
After the Match
The result was Finland won 1-0 and Denmark forward Martin Braithwaite said the decision to resume the match was the "least bad one".
Later on Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand said the game should not have been restarted, while former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel described that it was "absolutely ridiculous".
Hjulman told reporters after the game, "It was a traumatic experience. We talked about those feelings and it would've been OK to say 'no' if they didn't want to play. Some of them were not able to play, some were ready. It's not normal to play such a game when one of your friends is suffering with a heart issue."
Hjulmand also shared that Eriksen told him he did not remember much from Saturday's collapse and said, "Christian is in good spirits and it's a huge relief for the players after all this uncertainty. There is no doubt that we have been on the ropes."
Denmark will play their second Group B match against Belgium on Thursday evening, also in Copenhagen. Coach Hjulmand said it would be "very emotional" for his players. "I have said - very apropos - that Christian is the heart of our team. He is the pulse, the rhythm of our game," he told reporters on Tuesday. "No one can replace Christian ... But together we will do something together, something different."
Show of Support
Fans who attended the game then gathered outside of Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen afterwards, to show their support for the player, while many in the football world sent their well wishes. Among them was Harry Kane, the England captain and Eriksen's former Tottenham Hotspur teammate.
In Goyang, South Korea, Eriksen's former teammate Son Heung-Min scored a goal in his team's 2-1 victory versus Lebanon in a World Cup qualifier, and yelled "Christian Eriksen, I love you", as shown on a tweet from his club Tottenham.
In response, the grateful Danish pro footballer thanked fans from all over the world for their ‘sweet and amazing greetings'.
He wrote in his Instagram account, "Hello everyone. Big thanks for your sweet and amazing greetings and messages from all around the world. It means a lot to me and my family. I'm fine - under the circumstances. I still have to go through some examinations at the hospital, but I feel okay. Now, I will cheer on the boys on the Denmark team in the next matches. Play for all of Denmark."
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57480130
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57469627
