Christian Eriksen has opened up about his near-death experience after his bravery was recognised at the World Sports awards.
The Denmark international won ‘The Comeback of the Year’ prize after his miraculous recovery from a cardiac arrest at the Euros. The Danish side protected their colleague by shielding him from the cameras after he was taken off the field on a stretcher after collapsing midway through their game with Finland in 2021.
He eventually came through the ordeal, having been fitted with a device to control his irregular heartbeat. The central midfielder later returned to the Premier League, first with Brentford and latterly with Manchester United and Denmark.
After picking up his Laureus award, he said: “It has been an incredible one-and-a-half years. It changed my life for the worse but the doctors and medics and team-mates got me back. I was lucky nothing serious happened.
“It happens, unluckily. What I learnt from this is that it gets emotional for me when I’m around my family. I’ve been myself. I was myself anyway, only for that stupid moment.
“I haven’t changed my daily routine. I’ve enjoyed my life, my wife, and kids more. That’s what’s different.”
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Former Premier League star David Ginola, who overcame his own cardiac arrest after collapsing on a pitch during a charity match in 2016, said they were “brothers of the heart.” He said as he handed over the award: “To see him grace the Premier League was simply magnificent.”
Eriksen has previously explained what happened from his perspective at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen during Denmark's first Euro 2020 group game vs Finland. "I felt a small cramp in my calf and then I blacked out," he told Danish TV station DR1. “When I woke up from the CPR it was like waking from a dream.
"I don’t remember a thing from when I passed out. I’m on my back when I wake up. I feel them pressing on me. I struggled to breathe – and then I heard faint voices and doctors talking.
“I’m thinking, ‘This can’t be me lying here, I’m healthy’. My first thought is that I broke my back. ‘Can I move my legs? I can move my toes…’”
He added: “It’s not until I’m in the ambulance that I realise I had been dead. I’m thinking, ‘Keep my boots, I won’t play again’. I tell my fiancée Sabrina the same – ‘I’m not going to play again, no way’.”
Eriksen has since had an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) device fitted to his heart which is designed to detect and stop irregular heartbeats. He had to leave Inter Milan due to Serie A rules against ICDs, but made a brilliant return to action with Brentford in the second half of last season before being snapped up by United in the summer.
