Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest during the European Championship
Christian Eriksen is an inspiration.
The star of the Danish national team, the man who powered Brentford to Premier League survival in their first season back in the big time and now on the cusp of becoming Manchester United’s newest addition after verbally agreeing to a three-year deal, it’s impossible not to admire him as a footballer. But it’s not just what he does on the pitch that makes Eriksen such a special player and person, it’s his incredible mental and physical resilience that emerged on his darkest day and shone through right up until his road to recovery was complete.
On Saturday, June 12 last year, the footballing world was brought to a standstill. Eriksen, playing in front of a loving home crowd at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, collapsed midway through a Euro 2020 match against Finland. He’d suffered a cardiac arrest.
As paramedics heroically rushed onto the pitch, the midfielder was quickly and thankfully saved. Fans around the world celebrated the scenes of him being seen awake on a stretcher leaving the field, and the European Championship continued without the potential tragedy. While we got on with our lives, Eriksen’s had changed forever – but he wouldn’t give up on the day job.
Just seven months later, the 30-year-old stepped back onto the pitch to make his debut for Brentford in a 2-0 defeat at home by Newcastle. Manager Thomas Frank hailed his arrival as possibly the biggest signing in the club’s history and Eriksen would make a strong case with one goal, four assists, and several top-class performances before the end of the campaign.
Watch him play and it’s like he’s never been away, but his career was in serious jeopardy only 12 months ago. The ex-Tottenham playmaker was still contracted to Inter Milan having helped them win the Serie A title in May 2021. But the stringent rules of Italian football prevented Eriksen from representing the Nerazzurri again, as he’d been fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) during his early recovery process.
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