When the World Stopped: Christian Eriksen’s Collapse at Euro 2020 and His Incredible Comeback

• Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest in 2021 at the rescheduled edition of the Euros
• The Danish player made a remarkable recovery and returned to football six months later
• Ahead of this year's Euros in Germany, we relive that terrifying moment in Copenhagen

On June 12, 2021, at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, fans had come in their numbers (as much as the COVID-19 protocols would allow), ready to watch their national team host an international tournament for the first time.

Belief and confidence were rife that the De Rød-Hvide of Kasper Hjulmand would reach the latter stages of the delayed competition.

After an evenly-contested first 43 minutes against Finland, the coaches were probably preparing their half-time team talks when disaster struck. And it was felt beyond.

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Christian Eriksen, one of the star names of the side, went down unchallenged after receiving a throw-in. As the midfielder lay motionless on the turf, it quickly dawned on most people around him that something was terribly wrong.

With everyone still shell-shocked, Simon Kjær was among the first responders. The defender sprinted almost the entire length of the pitch to turn his teammate on his side to ensure the passage of air into his body.

This quick thinking was later credited as the act that saved Eriksen's life.

When Eriksen's heart stopped

Denmark's medical doctors, who are coincidentally brothers, Anders and Morten Boesen, confirmed that by the time they reached where Eriksen was, his heart had 'already stopped'.

"He was gone. And we did cardiac resuscitation, and it was cardiac arrest. How close were we? I don’t know," Morten said, as quoted by CNN Sports.

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As the doctors produced the defibrillator to attempt to revive Eriksen, Kjær marshalled his teammates, and together, they formed a protective barrier around the scene.

At this time, no one watching at home or in the stadium knew exactly what was going on, but a quick glance at the players was self-explanatory.

The players might have shown extreme courage to protect the privacy of their teammate, but their faces betrayed what they were going through.

So dire was the situation that even Finnish players were shocked. It was no longer a team issue - it was a humanitarian issue, and down there was a human being fighting for his life.

Simo Kjaer's leadership

Kjaer broke ranks briefly with his teammates and rushed pitchside to join goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel, who was comforting Eriksen's wife, Sabrina. The mental torture she must have gone through as she watched medics tend to her husband is not something you would wish on anyone.

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The raucous stadium as it was at the start had now gone silent as fans looked on pensively for any sort of movement from the shield.

14 minutes later, the movement came as Eriksen was mounted on a stretcher and rushed to a nearby hospital, but there was still no information on what had happened.

Pictures would later emerge of a wide-eyed Danish player on the stretcher, with Morten also confirming the midfielder spoke to him as they went to the hospital.

The Danish FA confirmed around 30 minutes later, after Eriksen had left the stadium, that he was alive and responding to treatment.

Denmark's incredible run at Euro 2020

The abandoned game was restarted a few minutes later, much to the anger of the Danish fans. Finland won the game through a solo strike from Joel Pohjanpalo but no one really cared as they awaited further updates from the hospital.

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Despite the setback, Hjulmand would later galvanise his team for an epic turnaround, as they reached the semi-finals before losing to England. From losing your star player in such a manner to losing the opening game to turning around to reach the last four of such a competition was majestic, to say the least.

Back at the hospital, Eriksen, then at Inter Milan, underwent a successful surgery where he was fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). He was discharged six days later.

Christian Eriksen's comeback

The story of the collapse and subsequent swift recovery was chilling, then heartwarming, and so was his return to football. The Italian league doesn't allow players to play with the ICDs, and thus, he left Inter by mutual consent.

Still determined to play football at a competitive level, Eriksen his joined former club, Odense Boldklub, for training purposes to ramp up his fitness. In January 2022, six months after his collapse, he joined English side, Brentford, on a free transfer.

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259 days after his collapse at Parken, the Dane played his first match in a league game against Newcastle United.

"At the time, I wanted to quit football. Obviously, when they say you have a heart attack, and a lot of stuff will happen, you have an ICD and so on. But at the time, I also knew that if I could play football, I wanted to come back, but I wanted to do it in a safe, possible way."

Kjaer and the medical team won the UEFA President's Award for their role in saving Eriksen's life, while the former Tottenham Hotspur man won the Laureus Comeback of the Year award in 2023.

The greatest lesson the Manchester United midfielder learnt was there's more to life than just football.

"I’ve probably found out that football is life, but it’s not that important. There’s not a lot of other stuff that’s more important in life but football."

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Denmark at Euro 2024

He recovered to play for Denmark at the 2022 World Cup. Eriksen is certain to be a part of Hjulmand's squad for the Euro 2024 championships in Germany, and will be hoping to take his team two better than the semi-final finish at the last continental championships.

Denmark plays Slovenia, Serbia and England in Group C.

How Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator works

Sports Brief has previously reported on how the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator works, with electrodes connected to the heart and the device making use of a battery with a 10-year life.

It is a device that delivers an electric shock to the heart in cases of cardiac arrest. Its job is to analyse the heart rhythm, record any irregularities, and release a shock to restore it to normalcy.