The whole footballing world was in a state of shock on Saturday, when Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch during Euro 2020 clash between Denmark and Finland. Eriksen, who is ranked amongst one of the top midfielders in Europe currently, was collapsed after a suspected cardiac arrest. According to several reports, Eriksen’s heart stopped for about five minutes during the incident. However, no official statement has been released from the Danish FA or the hospital on the reason behind the incident.
The Inter Milan midfield maestro is currently stable and is responding well after the horrific incident.
There is a high chance that the incident might put a football stop at Erisken’s career in Italy if it turned out to be a cardiac arrest. There is an Italian law that stops people to participate in sport if they are found to have a significant cardiac arrest.
Dr Scott Murray, who is a leading NHS consultant cardiologist told the MailOnline: “It probably is (the end of his career) for him. The Italians stop people participating in sport if they are found to have a significant cardiac abnormality, it’s in law.”
“They’ve been doing that for a long time, beyond 20 years and they’ve reduced the death rates from cardiac arrests in sport from beyond 3 per cent down to below one per cent.”
Eriksen recently played a crucial role in Inter Milan’s Serie A title win after 12 years and he has a contract with them until 2024. He joined the Italian giants in 2020 after leaving Tottenham Hotspur.
Dr Murray further claims that Italy have the greatest pre-participation screening in the world as Eriksen might have all the tests before he joined Inter back in 2020.
He continued: “He (Eriksen) comes from an Italian club so he must have had all of the tests before he started. The Italians are the best at screening for heart disease in competitive athletes.
“Italy has the greatest pre-participation screening in the world which tries to reduce events, but he still has an event on the pitch. So even if you screen, it can still happen. It’s going to be difficult for him to eliminate, he’s still going to have that 0.01 per cent of people who will still have something happen,” he added.
However, Eriksen is currently in stable condition and has sent greetings to his Denmark teammates on Saturday morning. While reportedly he also sent a text to Inter Milan’s WhatsApp group saying ‘I’m good’ late last night.
Giuseppe Marotta, the chief executive of Inter Milan confirmed that Eriksen’s collapse was not due to Covid-19, however, he stated that he would not provide any further information on the midfielder’s health – saying he would leave that to Danish FA.
“He did not have Covid and was not vaccinated either. At this moment, Eriksen is under the guidance of the Danish medical staff. It is right that they release information, but I can say the Inter medical staff have been in contact with them from the start,” Marotta told Rai Sport.