Denmark’s friendly with Ukraine on Sunday was abandoned after midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch. Eriksen had to have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator inserted to be able to electronically restart his heart after suffering a cardiac arrest during the European Championship in 2020. Due to that device, Eriksen was unable to continue playing soccer at Inter, leading to a return to play with Brentford in the Premier League after over a year away from soccer. It’s unknown at this time if the collapse was related to a similar heart issue, but he did appear to put his hand on his chest before collapsing. Eriksen was able to walk onto the ambulance under his own power in order to receive more medical care. He spent the past season with Wolfsburg as Denmark fell just short of qualifying for the World Cup. Eriksen, who started Denmark’s friendly against Ukraine, collapsed in the 65th minute of play. At that time, the match had to be stopped by the referees as medical officials took over.
“Christian Eriksen is conscious and doing well under the circumstances. The match has been called off,” a statement from the Danish FA stated.
Following the match being abandoned, the national team doctor Morten Boesen released a statement that the pacemaker did respond as expected.
“Christian is doing well and walked off the pitch by himself. As I see it, the pacemaker responded as it should,” Boesen stated. “He was briefly unconscious but regained consciousness very quickly, and we were quickly in contact with him. He will now undergo further examinations at the hospital to determine what caused the incident. We are in ongoing contact with him and the doctors at the hospital. But Christian is doing well, and he asked me to send his regards to all the players and tell them that he was okay.”
