Will Christian Eriksen play again?
Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest while playing in Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 match against Finland. Will the Danish midfielder play football again?
Euro 2020 will live long in the memory for many football fans. On the field, the tournament has thrown up some enthralling games, including Italy versus Spain on Tuesday. But another major incident has been the most talked about of the summer: the cardiac arrest that Denmark’s Christian Eriksen suffered in the first Group B fixture against Finland.
Many of these episodes end up in tragedy, but fortunately Eriksen recovered and is now fitted with an ICD heart-starting device in case he suffers the same issue again in the future.
Will Eriksen play anytime soon?
Eriksen, 29, is now at home continuing his recovery, after having visited his Danish team-mates to wish them good luck for the rest of the competition.
It now remains unclear whether the midfielder will ever play football professionally again. At the moment, his verdict, based on his personal decision together with the doctors’ advice, is unknown.
Denmark lost their match to Finland after the game was restarted and also suffered a defeat to Belgium, but they finally progressed to the knockout stages after comfortably beating Russia (1-4). In the round of 16 they thrashed Wales (0-4) and have since set themselves up for a mouthwatering semi-final against England, having beaten the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Former team-mate Blind suffered similar scare
Daley Blind, who competed at the European Championship with the Netherlands, also wears an ICD heart-starting device after suffering a similar health scare two years ago.
He has been able to successfully resume his career and despite calls for Eriksen to call it a day, he didn’t hesitate to support Eriksen to do the same and continue. “I am proud of myself that I managed to play for so long in that game. I did it, but it was hard,” he admitted.
"The images from Copenhagen, with Christian lying on the grass, had such a big impact on me.
“Those images were so recognizable to me. It was so real again, this is why it was so emotional for me,” he added.
Graeme Souness, not so optimistic
Former Scottish player and manager Graeme Souness, however, is not that optimistic and questions whether Eriksen can follow in the footsteps of Blind. The now pundit suffered a heart attack in 2015 and underwent a triple heart bypass at the age of 38.
Souness, an ambassador for the British Heart Foundation, praised the medical experts that saved Eriksen's life.