He was gone’ – Denmark team docter says Christian Eriksen suffered cardiac arrest
Denmark’s team doctor Morten Boesen has confirmed that Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest and ‘was gone’ before he was resuscitated by the medical team.
The Inter Milan midfielder collapsed during Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 match with Finland in Copenhagen on Saturday.
Eriksen underwent prolonged treatment on the pitch before he was taken to hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.
Denmark team doctor Boesen said on Sunday afternoon: “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.”
“His condition is stable, and he continues to be hospitalised for further examination.
“The team and staff of the national team has received crisis assistance and will continue to be there for each other after yesterday’s incident.”
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 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.
“I get the feelings from the players that maybe the time is too short to try to play football again, but maybe we can use it as a force to get together and try to go out and do our best in the next match.
“We will see if we can get ourselves together and play for Christian.”
Jose Mourinho admitted to talkSPORT he cried when watching his former player collapse on the pitch.
Mourinho, who coached the Dane at Tottenham, said: “Today I cannot stop thinking about what happened yesterday. I think it’s a day to celebrate, not to be sad.
“Hopefully football went in a direction where the organisation, the protocols the level of the doctors and the specialists, and I also believe God was looking at football in that moment. Everything together made Christian to be with us, to be with his family, to be alive.
