Last June 12, the heart of Christian Eriksen, a footballer for the Denmark national team, was paralyzed in the middle of the Eurocopa game. It happened behind a side in his own field, in the Parking stage, from Copenhagen, the patio of his house. Hundreds of Danish fans put their hands to their mouths in disbelief, fearing the worst. For three or four minutes, the Odense-trained player was unconscious, “gone” from the underworld at 29 years old and with no cardiac history. The images of the resuscitation massages went around the world. The defibrillator in the stadium saved his life. And today, recovered from the trauma and with a device implanted in his body that will restart his heart in the event of a new syncope, Eriksen dreams of the World Cup in Qatar.
Eriksen had left England to play in Italy. There, in Milan, he had obtained the scudetto at the service of two renowned strikers: the Belgian Romelu Lukaku and the Argentine Lautaro Martinez. The Dane’s job was to assist them. 2021 was destined to be his year: champion in Italy, he was insignia of a Danish national team who aspired to go far in the European Championship. That sunny Saturday in June, the debut. Opposite, another Scandinavian team, Finland. There was nothing to suggest that the clear Copenhagen followingnoon would suddenly cloud over. And Eriksen would see everything black. Or else he wouldn’t see anything, for a while.
“Thanks for all the love”
“I felt a little cramp in my calf and then I passed out,” said the footballer in a interview of almost half an hour with the Danish channel DR1, the first he gave following the incident that nearly cost him his life. “When I woke up I was on my back. It was hard for me to breathe. I heard voices and doctors speaking to me. I was conscious, ”recalled Eriksen, who made a name for himself in Europe with the Ajax jersey, earning him a multi-million dollar pass to the English Premier League. “I remember everything, except those minutes when I was in heaven”, the soccer player reviewed, who despite the episode did not abandon professional practice.
Eriksen recalled that Saturday followingnoon in great detail. “I saw everything black. When I woke up to CPR, it was like waking up from a dream. He had been very far away ”, he recalled during the interview. And he settled on a fortuitous event that made him come to his senses: “When the cardiologist on the team said that I was 30 years old, I corrected it. I said ‘hey, I’m 29 years old’. I came back to consciousness at that moment. I remember the sheets on all four sides to prevent people from seeing me in the state I was in. I saw the fans sing and when they put me in the ambulance. I remember everything, clearly ”. For Eriksen, that trauma is a kind of video clip in which everything was all scripted.
“Waiting in the future”
“Only when I was in the ambulance did I realize that he had been dead”the Dane recalled, looking at the camera. He had a tic: put a hand near his eyes, as if afraid of the appearance of a tear. Eriksen revealed that he thought he would never put on his boots once more, play soccer. He believed that this collapse, before the cameras of the world, in his country, in his stadium, was the end of his career. At 29 years old. “I told my girlfriend, Sabrina, that I was not going to play once more. There was no way, ”he revealed.
In the hospital the examinations were followed. Medical tests to find out why the heart had failed in the middle of the game without ever giving a warning at some point in his career. Magnetic resonances inspected his body. A CT scan looked for potential tumors. The problem was cardiac and the solution was within reach: implant a cardioverter defibrillator, which would restart his heart in the event of a new failure. And it would prevent fainting. Including being three or four minutes out of this world.
“Be positive”
In the middle of the tests, the phone rang. They were his teammates from the selected team. They were in the locker room, in full trauma. They know that Christian was alive and undergoing various tests. The footballers asked him what should they do with the game. To continue or not was the question. “I told them it was going to be okay. Let them keep playing. But they shouldn’t have. Not following going through that trauma, ”Eriksen reflected now. Denmark would lose 1-0 and the footballer would watch the final on television from his room. Parken Stadium looked out through the window and he might see the fans – his fans – in the distance.
Eriksen mightn’t help but watch the rest of the Denmark tournament, amidst grumbling and anger. “Dammit. They are doing a great job and I am not there “he thought more than once. “I felt like this was a minor thing. I might walk and I felt like I might run “, he told in the interview. This led him to believe that the problem was overcome following the implantation of the cardioverter defibrillator. He might regain his normal life and go back to playing football. Doctors gave him the green light to try. But bad news came, from Italy. The Inter leaders explained to him that the rules of the A league, very clear, prevented a soccer player from performing with a cardioverter defibrillator. There was no future for Eriksen there. Conclusion: contract terminated and, for the first time in his career, a free player.
“There is no reason why you shouldn’t play soccer. The heart stabilized and I have a green light to go back. I am an eternal lover of football and I have no fear of fainting once more. If it happens, the cardioverter will help me. Don’t worry: I don’t plan on collapsing on a court once moreEriksen said as she clung to a wooden table and gave herself a sheepish laugh. He then launched: “My goal is to play the World Cup in Qatar. I want to go back and I can go back “.
Eriksen moved in December 2021 with a personal trainer awaiting offers. One possibility is to return to Odense, where it all began. For a couple of days, he has been practicing with the Chiasso squad, a team from the third category in Switzerland. Eriksen, the man who paralyzed the world, smiled once more. And to play soccer. Now he is going for more and is hopeful with Qatar 2022.
