FIFA World Cup 2026™
Denmark's Eriksen collapses during Ukraine friendly
Christian Eriksen collapsed during Denmark's friendly against Ukraine, five years after suffering a cardiac arrest during the European Championships.… Show More
Christian Eriksen collapsed during Denmark's friendly against Ukraine, five years after suffering a cardiac arrest during the European Championships.
"Christian Eriksen is conscious and doing well under the circumstances," the Danish football association wrote on social media.
The 34-year-old has worn a pacemaker on his heart since he collapsed during the group stage game against Finland at Euro 2020, which was played in 2021.
That led to him spending more than six months away from football.
On Sunday, he fell to the ground in the 64th minute of the match, with Denmark leading 2-1 at the time.
Medical staff rushed onto the pitch to give Eriksen assistance and the referee called off the match a quarter of an hour later.
Eriksen was subsequently taken to hospital in Odense, where the match was played.
"Christian is doing well and walked off the pitch by himself," said Denmark team doctor Morten Boesen.
"As I see it, the pacemaker responded as it should.
"He was briefly unconscious, but regained consciousness very quickly, and we were quickly in contact with him.
"He will now undergo further examinations at the hospital to determine what caused the incident.
"We are in ongoing contact with him and the doctors at the hospital.
"But Christian is doing well and he asked me to send his regards to all the players and tell them that he was ok."
When Eriksen suffered his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020, the match resumed, with Finland winning 1-0.
European football's governing body UEFA had told the team they had to either resume the match there and then or do so at midday the following day, a stance which came in for much criticism, including by Denmark great Peter Schmeichel, whose son Kasper was in goal for the national side, who called it "absolutely ridiculous".
He also accused UEFA of showing a lack of "compassion".
Denmark's then-coach Kasper Hjulmand said afterwards: "We should not have played.
Denmark also lost their following match to Belgium but then won three in a row to reach the semi-finals, where they were beaten by England.
Eriksen resumed his career seven months later at Brentford in the Premier League having been forced to leave Inter Milan due to Italy's rules against playing with a pacemaker.
He went on to join Manchester United, where he won the FA Cup and League Cup, and now plays for Wolfsburg in Germany, where he has another year to run on his contract.
He also resumed his international career, playing for Denmark at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and Euro 2024 in Germany.
Denmark have not qualified for the World Cup in North America, which starts next week.
