Christian Eriksen scored Denmark’s first goal at Euro 2024 against Slovenia, and it will undoubtedly feel extra memorable.
Eriksen collapsed on the pitch three years ago after suffering heart arrest during Denmark’s Euro 2020 group stage match against Finland, which was postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
The Danish skipper got life-saving treatment on the pitch before being resuscitated and transported to the hospital.
Exactly 1,100 days after the event, Eriksen scored brilliantly to put Denmark ahead of Slovenia, taking Jonas Wind’s wonderful back-heel on his chest and volleying into the bottom corner.
The sight of Eriksen celebrating his goal, a broad grin on his face, was in stark contrast to the tragic images at Euro 2020.
That day, his Denmark teammates surrounded Eriksen arm-in-arm as he underwent treatment, attempting to shelter him from the cameras and fans in the stands.
There was relief across the stadium – and throughout the world – as a conscious Eriksen waved to the crowd as he was stretchered off the field.
“So, what should I say?” “He was gone,” Morten Boesen, Denmark’s team doctor, stated the next day. “We performed cardiac resuscitation, and it resulted in cardiac arrest. How near were we? I do not know.”
After getting life-saving treatment on the field, Eriksen was fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) device, which is a sort of pacemaker designed to prevent deadly cardiac arrests by delivering a jolt to restore normal heart rhythm.
Inter Milan, the Serie A club to whom Eriksen was contracted at the time of the event, informed him that he would be permitted to transfer abroad to continue his football career, with the midfielder unable to play in Italy unless the ICD device was removed.
Eriksen began training with his former club Odense Boldklub in Denmark before joining Brentford on a free transfer in January 2022, and then Manchester United, where he presently plays.
Eriksen’s brush with mortality has left him with a profound philosophical and contemplative outlook on life.
“I’ve learned that even after a bad time, there’s always a time after where everything will be different,” Eriksen told CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies after winning the Comeback of the Year title at the Laureus Sports Awards in Paris last year.
“One of the first things I heard was that even if you’re feeling wonderful, you’ll feel horrible, and then feel good again. It’ll merely go up and down; time is your best buddy.
