Denmark’s Christian Eriksen just collapsed on the pitch without any contact from any other players to a rude shock to his team-mates in their Euro 2020 opener on Saturday (12) at Copenhagen[/caption]
Football is considered THE most popular game in the world. Played by billions and watched by many more billions of people, it easily attracts the biggest crowds for any sporting occasion.
In terms of the competitions for the major prizes in football, the Football World Cup, the European Championships, and the South American football championships --named Copa America-- do rank in that same order, probably in terms of their significance.
With the unusual circumstances the world faced in 2020 because of the Coronavirus outbreak, Euro 2020 tournament was put back to the calendar year of 2021. This much-looked-forward-to event got underway last Friday (11) with the opening ceremony and the first match.
Christian Eriksen
Christian Eriksen is one of the best midfield players in the world. Having formerly played at Tottenham, he has now moved to Italy where he is playing for Inter Milan football club. In fact, this season he helped his club to win the Italian championship after almost a decade of dominance by the Juventus football club.
He is also an integral part of the Denmark National side. He has been playing football all his life and has undergone numerous medical tests and is considered a very fit player. At 29 years of age, he is relatively a young man considered to be at the prime of his life.
He was considered to be one of the key players for Denmark at these championships if they were to progress to the latter stages of the tournament. And then a huge tragedy almost befell him at the very first match of Euro 2020.
The Danish were playing the Finland. Eriksen who had played more than 100 times already for Denmark just collapsed on the pitch without any contact from any other players whatsoever. He was just hit on the back from an errant pass. The players immediately called the team doctor onto the field and everyone in the ground --and those watching the action on TV around the world-- feared the very worst.
Eriksen was taken to the hospital after being administered CPR or Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and given oxygen on the pitch. Simon Kjaer, the Danish Captain is being hailed a hero for his quick administering of CPR and is credited with saving Eriksen’s life.
Danish doctor speaks
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Cameroon international Marc Vivien Foe, 28, collapsed while playing in a 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final against Columbia and died shortly afterwards in hospital[/caption]
The Danish team doctor Morten Boesen later informed to the world media the following: “Well, what should I say? He was gone. And we did cardiac resuscitation and it was cardiac arrest. How close were we? I don’t know,”
“We got him back after one ‘de-fib’, so that is quite fast,” he added, referring to the ‘defibrillator’ used to revive Eriksen. “The details... I am not a cardiologist, so the details about what happened and further, I will leave to the experts.”
The match was suspended following prolonged efforts from the medical staff to resuscitate Eriksen -- with CPR and the defibrillator.
And in fact, the doctor of the club that he plays for professionally, Inter Milan, also issued a statement regarding the player’s medical condition and also touching on his past medical history.
“The important thing is that he is well, but there had never been any episode that, even remotely, had hinted at a problem, neither when he was at Tottenham, nor at Inter. In Italy, controls are very rigorous,” Inter Milan team doctor Piero Volpi told an Italian newspaper on Sunday.
Inter Milan Chief Executive Giuseppe Marotta said Eriksen has never had Covid-19 and was never vaccinated. “We don’t want to be intrusive because it’s right for the player to be calm. He is a champion,” he told Italian television channel Rai Sport.
History of heart disease for footballers
Unfortunately, this particular case of Eriksen is not an isolated one. There has been a history of footballers having “heart attacks” on the football field.
There is a scary list of footballers who have died after having suffered from heart disease in recent times. The most famous case is probably of former Cameroon international, Marc Vivien Foe.
He was only 28 years old, and having represented his country at even the World Cup, Foe collapsed while playing in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final between his country and Columbia and died shortly afterwards in hospital. An autopsy later revealed the cause of his death was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart disease.
So, what causes these fit young sports persons to suddenly have these heart diseases from nowhere? Unfortunately, the science has not been able to totally explain it yet.
The British Heart Foundation’s view is, “Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common inherited heart condition. Whilst cardiac screening amongst athletes may help detect the condition, we also stress the importance of everyone having a full awareness of their family medical history, especially if a member of the family has died suddenly under the age of 50.”
Conclusion
Young footballers are dying from heart problems at a higher rate than was previously thought, according to doctors who oversee the cardiac screening programme for the Football Association (FA) of England.
Their evaluation of 20 years of screening young footballers at the age of 16 who are on the verge of a professional career also shows that most died about seven years after a heart check that showed no problem. In the light of the findings, the FA has increased the number of cardiac assessments that young footballers are given from one to three, at the ages of 16, 18, and 20.
The only safe conclusion to be drawn from all of the above information is that it is extremely important to have regular checkups and be vigilant at all times, until science can come up with a definitive answer that seems to be the only course of action.
Thankfully Christian Eriksen survived his scare. Danish soccer federation released the following update on Eriksen: “Christian Eriksen is awake and his condition remains stable. He remains hospitalised for further examinations.”
All are hoping for a full recovery for this talented young man who almost had his life cut tragically short. Get well soon Christian Eriksen!
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Eriksen says he’s feeling ‘fine’ in social media post
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Eriksen smiles from his hospital bed in Denmark[/caption]
Danish player Christian Eriksen has thanked well-wishers from around the world in his first social media post since suffering a cardiac arrest during Saturday’s Euro 2020 game against Finland.
The midfielder is seen smiling from his hospital bed, giving a thumbs-up in a post on the Danish national team’s Twitter profile.
In an accompanying message, the 29-year-old midfielder wrote: “Big thanks for your sweet and amazing greetings and messages from all around the world. It means a lot to me and my family.”
“I’m fine -- under the circumstances. I still have to go through some examinations at the hospital, but I feel okay. Now, I will cheer on the boys on the Denmark team in the next matches. Play for all Denmark,” the post added.