Christian Eriksen is home with his family and “doing well” after collapsing during Denmark’s friendly against Ukraine on Sunday, the 34-year-old Wolfsburg midfielder has said in a statement. The match in Odense was stopped on 65 minutes when Eriksen fell unconscious, and was abandoned shortly after. He was able to walk from the pitch after regaining consciousness, and spent the night in hospital before being discharged.
Eriksen, who was fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) after suffering a cardiac arrest during a Euro 2020 match in 2021, said the device had activated. “As you can probably imagine, receiving a shock from my ICD has had a major effect on both me and my family, but I want to assure everyone that this was a different situation from what happened in 2021,” he wrote on Instagram.
“Christian Eriksen says he is 'doing well' at home with family after collapsing in Denmark friendly, his ICD fired.”
Denmark national team doctor Morten Boesen said on Monday morning: “I spoke to Christian this morning and he is doing well. He is with his family and in good spirits. The expectation is that he will be discharged soon and can go home.” Boesen later confirmed the pacemaker “responded as it should”.
Denmark were leading 2-1 at the time of Eriksen’s collapse. Denmark boss Brian Riemer said: “Christian Eriksen waved to his team-mates as he left the pitch. A few minutes before he fell ill, he had had a tussle with Ruslan Malinovskyi and I thought that was why he looked so distressed, but I was wrong. From that moment on, neither I nor the players on the pitch could have carried on with the match.”
Supportive messages came from former Manchester United teammates David de Gea, Luke Shaw and Donny van de Beek, as well as ex-Inter Milan teammate Lautaro Martinez and former Tottenham teammate Lucas Moura.
Eriksen added in his statement: “For now, my focus is on recovering, spending time with my family, going on vacation, and playing football with my children.” Neither Denmark nor Ukraine qualified for the World Cup, which begins on Thursday.