Denmark's Christian Eriksen collapses on pitch, given CPR, and 'stabilized;' later speaks with mates & match resumes [Updated]

The Denmark-Finland match at the European Championship was suspended on Saturday after Danish star Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field just before halftime.

Eriksen was seen receiving chest compressions as he lay on the ground, and was stretchered off by medical personnel. UEFA announced shortly afterward that the match would not resume.

Thankfully, Euro 2020 organizers confirmed that Eriksen was alive, taken to the hospital, and stabilized. The Danish federation said Eriksen was awake.

Updated June 12, 2021, at 3 p.m., EST: Danish outlet Sportstudio reported later that Eriksen spoke to his teammates and encouraged them to continue the match:

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In the interim, Finnish and Danish fans took turns doing a “Marco Polo” chant with Eriksen’s name:

There were no signs before Eriksen collapsed that he was in any sort of distress.

Known by many Americans for his time as a midfielder at Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League, Eriksen has been with Inter Milan the past two seasons, both of which have been impacted by COVID-19.

Last March, as the pandemic ravaged Italy, Eriksen had to leave the hotel where he was staying while house hunting, as it was shuttered amid lockdown, and he wound up quarantining at the team’s training facility. This past season, Inter Milan endured coronavirus outbreaks amid the team in October and again in March.

It was not clear whether Eriksen actually contracted the virus himself. It’s worth remembering, though, that testing for COVID-19 was not widespread during the early stages of the pandemic, nor was it known just how many people got infected and were asymptomatic.

While we don’t know what Eriksen’s status is regarding COVID-19, it’s a question that has to be asked, as it’s hard to see what happened to Eriksen and not think of last December, when Florida basketball player Keyontae Johnson collapsed, and was diagnosed with acute myocarditis, months after he had recovered from coronavirus.

Eriksen and Inter won Serie A this year. He has scored 36 goals for Denmark in international play, one behind Michael Laudrup for sixth in the nation’s history.

Only Peter Schmeichel, Dennis Rommedahl, and John Dahl Tomassson have made more appearances for Denmark than Eriksen, who was the youngest player in the entire 2010 World Cup.

This is a developing story.