Christian Eriksen: Danish player ‘was gone’ before being resuscitated on pitch, doctor reveals

Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest and “was gone” before being resuscitated on the pitch, Denmark team doctor Morten Boesen said.

Boesen led the work in giving the player CPR after he collapsed shortly before half time during the Euro 2020 game against Finland on Saturday.

“He was gone. We did cardiac resuscitation, it was a cardiac arrest,” he told a press conference arranged by the Danish football federation on Sunday afternoon..

“How close were we to losing him? I don’t know, but we got him back after one defib, so that’s quite fast.”

Boesen added: “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.”

He said that he now feels the game should not have resumed, and revealed that a psychologist was brought in to help Denmark’s players and staff on Saturday night

“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.”

The Inter Milan midfielder is in stable condition in a Copenhagen hospital.

Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand says he spoken to Eriksen via video link and says it was “good to see him smile.”

Hjulmand says Eriksen couldn’t remember much about his brush with death and more concerned about his teammates’ well being and asked how they were doing.

“That’s typical Christian,” Hjulmand said.

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