Christian Eriksen was “in a good mood” in a Copenhagen hospital as doctors seek answers for why his heart stopped Saturday in Denmark’s Euro 2020 game.
“He was happy because he understood how much love is around. Messages have reached him from all over the world. And he was particularly impressed by those of the Inter world: not only the teammates he heard through the chat, but also the fans. Christian doesn’t give up.”
Eriksen will remain “under observation,” Schoots added, in Rigshospitalet, the hospital where he was taken after being revived on the pitch with CPR and a defibrillator. Schoots noted the emotional impact of the frightening scene that unfolded during the 43rd minute of the game against Finland. “He worried about us. He asked us, ‘how are you? I think you are in worse shape than me.’ ”
Inter Milan officials discounted the possibility that the coronavirus could have played a role in Eriksen’s collapse, with club director Giuseppe Marotta telling Rai Sport that the star player “didn’t have covid and wasn’t vaccinated either.”
Some athletes have had cardiac inflammation or myocarditis after coming down with the virus. But a recent study showed that only five of the 789 U.S. professional athletes who tested positive for the coronavirus in 2020 developed serious heart disease. Piero Volpi, the Inter team physician, told Gazzetta (via Reuters) that “there has never been an episode that even remotely hinted at a problem, neither when he was at Tottenham [from 2013 until January 2020] nor at Inter. In Italy, the checks are very rigorous.”
Although that was echoed by Sanjay Sharma of St. George’s University of London, the cardiologist for Tottenham Hotspur, he told Mail on Sunday some infections could have caused cardiac “scarring.” Ericksen’s tests with Spurs included annual EKGs, and those had been normal over the years. Seeing him collapse caused Sharma to double-check the results.
“I thought: ‘Oh my God! Is there something there that we didn’t see?’ ” he said. “But I have looked at all the test results and everything looked perfect.”
Whatever the cause, Eriksen was in immediate crisis, with teammates, the referee and medics credited with quickly reviving him. Eriksen was conscious as he was taken from the pitch on a gurney. “He was gone, and we did cardiac resuscitation. It was a cardiac arrest,” Morten Boesen, the team’s doctor, said Sunday (via the Associated Press). “How close were we [to losing Eriksen]? I don’t know. We got him back after one defib, so that’s quite fast. I’m not a cardiologist, so the details I will leave to the experts at the hospital.”
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