‘I touched the ball, I smelled the grass, I put on my shoes and little by little the illusion of playing returned,’ narrates Christian Eriksen 7 months after cardiac arrest

Signed for the end of the season by Brentford, the Danish Christian Eriksen, who suffered a cardiac arrest in the middle of the match in the last European Championship, explained on Tuesday that he knew “two days after” the incident that he would play football again.

“On the way to the hospital, I told Sabrina (his wife) that the best thing would be to hang up the boots. But, that idea changed two days later,” Eriksen told the Premier League club’s website.

During a match in the group stage of the European tournament, on June 12, between Denmark and Finland, the midfielder collapsed and had to be revived on the pitch before being evacuated in an ambulance.

“It was a reaction at the time. I really understood what had happened to me later in the night and the days after. The exams started and I put a lot of questions: Will I be able to do this? And this?” continued the 29-year-old player, who uses a cardiac defibrillator.

“But the feeling after hearing the doctors say that even with a defibrillator there are no limits to doing what you want and even with my health problem… It all depends on the diagnosis and how you take all this,” said the Scandinavian .

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If putting on a device prevented him from playing again for Inter Milan, with whom he was under contract, Eriksen had to undergo a serious stress test to ensure he would endure returning to the competition, before signing for Brentford on January 31. .

“The first few months, I really couldn’t do much of anything. You have to heal yourself and wait for everything to return to normal (…). Only in the last four months did the recovery begin,” Eriksen said.

“I touched the ball, I went back to a soccer field, I smelled the grass, I put on my soccer boots and little by little everything came back, the illusion of playing matches, of being in the stadium, of being part of a team. ”, narrated the Danish midfielder.

At the moment, he has only participated in his first group training session on Monday and his coach Thomas Frank has confirmed that he will not be in the squad for the match against Manchester City on Wednesday, corresponding to matchday 24 of the Premier League.

(D)