A beaming Christian Eriksen has given a thumbs up from his hospital bed and thanked fans for their ‘amazing greetings and messages’ after suffering a cardiac arrest in Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 clash with Finland.
The 29-year-old
midfielder collapsed on the pitch while receiving the ball from a throw-in in
the 41st minute of Saturday’s Group B encounter at Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium.
Horrified
supporters watched on as Eriksen was given emergency CPR before being
stretchered off the pitch but the Inter Milan star was brought to a stable
condition and even spoke to his team-mates via FaceTime that same evening.
Denmark captain Simon Kjaer, the team’s medical staff and referee Anthony Taylor have been widely praised for their quick response to Eriksen’s collapse before the match later resumed, with Joel Pohjanpalo’s second-half strike securing a 1-0 victory for Finland.
‘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 [love heart emoji and praying emoji],’ Eriksen told his 3.3 million followers on Instagram.
‘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 [Denmark flag]. Best Christian.’
Speaking earlier
this week, Denmark’s team doctor, Morten Boesen, claimed the former Tottenham
star was ‘gone’ before being resuscitated.
‘We started the
resuscitation and we managed to do it,’ Boesen said.
‘How close were
we to losing him? I don’t know, but we got him back after one defib, so that’s
quite fast.
‘How quickly
they reacted was decisive I would say.
‘The time from
when it happens until he receives help is the most important factor. And that
was a short period of time. That was decisive.
‘They are now
doing a series of tests at the hospital that can maybe give some of the answers
him and I are looking for. But he is awake and is answering questions clearly.’
‘His heart is
beating again… the tests that have been done so far look fine. We don’t have an
explanation to why it happened.’
Eriksen will no
doubt be watching on in two days’ time when his Denmark team-mates return to
Parken Stadium to face group leaders Belgium.
The Danes’ final
group match takes place next Monday versus Russia, who were thumped 3-0 by
Belgium in their opening game.
No comments