Collapse during a European Championship game
Flashback to June 12, 2021. For the first time in its football history, the Danish men’s national team plays for one EM in their own country. All three Danish group matches take place at the Copenhagen ParkStadium, the first of which against Underdog Finland. Almost three decades after the surprise coup in 1992, the Danes are dreaming of a new one EM-Title. Eriksen feels great and sings the Danish national anthem with thousands of fans.
That happens in the 43rd minute EM-Drama. After a throw-in, Eriksen suddenly falls forward to the ground and remains lifeless. The heart of the ex-Dortmunder’s teammate Thomas Delaney, from Leipzig striker Yussuf Poulsen and several other Danes with Bundesliga experience simply stopped without warning.
Eriksen needs to be revived
The rushed rescue workers manage to revive Eriksen and save his life, while his team protects him and the emergency workers. The spectators in the stadium, the players around the Danish captain Simon Kjaer, Eriksen’s family and millions of fans at home receive the redeeming message after grueling minutes: Eriksen is conscious again. Shortly afterwards, his team can face him, and he is already watching the last 20 minutes of the game in the hospital bed. He is later fitted with a defibrillator that can send out shocks in an emergency.
Eriksen had already written off his own football career for a moment. “In the ambulance I thought: Keep my shoes. It’s over. I won’t play football anymore“he said in that DR-Interview. After months of quiet with the family and the start of advanced training at his youth club Odense BK But it is clear to him that it should continue – and at the top level so that he can recommend himself for the strong Danish national team.