Christian Eriksen collapses during Denmark friendly, says he is 'doing well' at home

Christian Eriksen collapsed during Denmark's friendly against Ukraine on Sunday but regained consciousness and was able to walk off the field. He spent the night in hospital and later posted on Instagram that he is "doing well" at home with his family. The match was abandoned after the incident, and doctors said his implanted defibrillator responded as it should.

The 34-year-old midfielder, who now plays for Wolfsburg, fell to the ground in the 65th minute of the match at Nature Energy Park in Odense, clutching his chest with both hands. Television footage showed him lying on his back as concerned players from both sides formed a ring around him and medical staff rushed onto the pitch.

Denmark's team doctor, Morten Boesen, told Danish media that Eriksen was briefly unconscious but regained consciousness quickly. "Christian is doing well and walked off the pitch by himself," Boesen said. "As I see it, the pacemaker responded as it should." Boesen added that Eriksen would undergo further examinations at the hospital to determine what caused the incident.

Eriksen's statement

In a statement posted on Instagram, Eriksen said he was "doing well" and at home with his family. "As you can probably imagine, receiving a shock from my ICD has had a major effect on both me and my family, but I want to assure everyone that this was a different situation from what happened in 2021," he wrote.

"In addition to being grateful for the support and assistance of all the players and the medical team on the field, I am also incredibly grateful to the doctors who have cared for me and my heart over the years. Thanks to their expertise, my ICD did exactly what it was designed to do: protect me when I needed it."

Eriksen said his "recovery has already started" and that his focus now is on "recovering, spending time with my family, going on vacation, and playing football with my children."

Background: Eriksen's 2021 collapse and ICD

Eriksen was fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) after suffering a cardiac arrest during a Euro 2020 match against Finland in Copenhagen in 2021. He was given CPR on the pitch and later resumed his playing career with Brentford in 2022, before moving to Manchester United and then to Wolfsburg.

The ICD is a small life-saving device that detects problems with the heart's rhythm and immediately tries to correct them. Professor Aneil Malhotra, a sports cardiologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, told the BBC that receiving a shock from an ICD "feels like being thumped in the chest" and that resetting the heart is "like switching a computer off and on again."

The exact cause of Eriksen's collapse on Sunday remains unknown, according to team doctor Morten Boesen. The Danish Football Federation confirmed on social media that Eriksen was conscious and "doing well under the circumstances", and that the friendly had been called off.

Neither Denmark nor Ukraine qualified for this year's World Cup, which begins on Thursday.