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Euro 2020/2021: Eriksen is still hospitalized but is “stable” and has spoken with his teammates

The European Championship this Saturday skirted the tragedy. The image of the captain of Denmark, Christian Eriksen, fallen on the ground, unconscious, shocked the entire sports universe. Because the 29-year-old midfielder who plays for Inter Milan, needed the rapid intervention of the health services to save his life. It was an agonizing ten minutes until the footballer regained consciousness and left the field on a stretcher. Cases such as that of Antonio Puerta, who died in 2007 during a league match, returned to the memory of the fans, that for minutes they feared the worst. Because the paramedics weren’t able to revive him. Everything ended, however, in a tremendous fright and Eriksen recovers in the emergency room of a Copenhagen hospital. The match, which was suspended for one hour and forty minutes, was completed with a victory for Finland, their first win in a European Championship. Fortunately, in the last medical report published by the Danish Federation a reassuring message is given: «This morning we spoke to him and he greeted his colleagues. His condition is stable and he continues to be hospitalized to undergo complementary tests.

But by then the result was the least of it. Because the chronicle of the meeting was marked by what happened in the 42nd minute of the first half. Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch as the ball was passed to him on a throw-in. Comrades and rivals quickly realized that this was not normal and demanded between fuss the entrance of the medical services.

The uncertainty about the state of health of Eriksen, a victim of a heart problem that made him plummet, marked the next ten minutes, in which the toilets made an effort to revive him with cardiac massages. The images caused both footballers and fans to cry and pray for the life of the midfielder. Silence flooded the Parken stadium in Copenhagen, with almost 20,000 fans -half of its capacity-, without a safety distance or masks. Many of the Danish players, meanwhile, stood around an Eriksen lying on the grass in an attempt to avoid images being taken. The footballers themselves were unable to look at their partner lying on the ground, first on his stomach and then on his back. Then later some workers would arrive with some sheets to try to generate some privacy in the work of the toilets.

Eriksen, the soul of Denmark

After the panic scenes – including the Danish goalkeeper hugging a woman who belongs to the player’s family – the footballer regained consciousness and everything was left in a huge fright. Even the public exploded in a heartfelt ovation to Eriksen when the footballer was removed from the field on a stretcher. The first reassuring image came when the midfielder could be seen wide-eyed, awake, wearing a breathing mask, holding his left hand to his head, as he was carried behind a goal. Denmark’s players also formed a wall so that the scene of Eriksen as he was removed from the pitch was not seen on the stadium screens.

There were a few minutes of tremendous tension that lasted forever at the Parken, with footballers and fans in tears and trying to console each other, until UEFA announced that the footballer was already “stabilized”, although concern and doubts about his state of health continued until almost three quarters of an hour after being struck down. Shortly afterwards, the Danish Football Association confirmed that Eriksen was “awake”, and at 8:00 pm it was announced that the suspended match would resume half an hour later. According to the UEFA statement, the decision to complete the match was made “at the request of the players of both teams.” Shortly before 8.30 pm the players of both formations took to the field, and both made a pineapple on the green, with Eriksen in mind.

Heart failure

The footballer must now undergo an in-depth medical examination to determine the origin of the problem. Everything points to heart failure, which could put him off the pitch for good. It happened, for example, to Rubén de la Red, a footballer who collapsed during a Cup match against Real Unión de Irún. After undergoing several years of controls in an attempt to return to soccer practice – he was 25 years old when that episode took place – the footballer, who was in the Spanish team that won the Euro Cup in 2008, announced his premature retirement because the Doctors did not guarantee that he could not lose his life during the exertion of professional sports.

Kjaer, the captain who became Eriksen's guardian angel

Last medical part

This morning the Danish Federation made public the current status of the Danish star: “We have spoken with him and he greeted his teammates. His condition is stable and he remains hospitalized to pass complementary tests«, They announced in a message on Twitter.

“The team and the technical team of the selection have received a crisis assistant and we will continue to be for each other after yesterday’s incident,” they added on the social network.

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