Christian Eriksen gives thumbs up in first pic from hospital as he gives update, Schmeichel speaks on Uefa’s handling
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN has given a thumbs up with the first pic of him since his cardiac arrest posted on his Instagram.
From his hospital bed, Eriksen thanked everyone for their support and wrote: "I'm fine - under the circumstances. I still have to go through some examinations at the hospital, but I feel okay."
Denmark's players had visited him in hospital with team-mate Kasper Schmeichel saying it was "damn nice to see him smile".
But Schmeichel has had some choice words for Uefa, saying the match should not have continued".
The Danes' game against Finland had to be stopped after Eriksen collapsed on the field just before half time, receiving CPR shortly afterwards.
The match continued once both teams were aware Eriksen had woken up, with Finland running out 1-0 winners.
Follow all the latest with our live blog below...
WHAT HAPPENED?
Here's what happened to Danish star Christian Eriksen on Saturday afternoon.
ICYMI
Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand has blasted Uefa for giving his players a ‘tough choice’ after Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch on Saturday.
He said: “I think it was the wrong thing to make the decision between the two scenarios in this case.
“The players didn’t know if they lost their best friend and they had to decide [whether to play].
“I have a feeling we shouldn’t have played, to just get on the bus and go home and see what the next days brought.
“It was a tough message that the players had to try and make a decision. I have a sense that it was wrong the players were put in this situation.
“I am really proud to be the coach of a team that responded the way they did. Football showed its best face. Team spirit, compassion and love is what football is really about.”
FAMILY FIRST
Rio Ferdinand believes Christian Eriksen is unlikely to play football again after his cardiac arrest.
The 29-year-old was resuscitated on the field during Denmark's Euro 2020 defeat to Finland on Saturday.
Medics confirmed that he 'was gone' before being given CPR and shocked with a defibrillator.
Eriksen is now recovering in hospital and provided a positive update reassuring fans that he 'is fine under the circumstances.'
His collapse left the footballing world in shock including BBC pundit Rio Ferdinand who spoke of his emotions seeing Eriksen fighting for his life.
Speaking on his Vibe With Five Youtube show, he said: "I don’t think he plays again, I’ve got to be honest.
"If I’m him I’m not thinking about that probably, I’d just want to be healthy for the sake of my family really."
'PHENOMENAL' REACTION
Clive Clarke believes that Christian Eriksen's cardiac arrest must never be forgotten.
Clarke, former Stoke defender, suffered a cardiac arrest of his own at hal-time whilst on loan at Leicester back in 2007.
He told the PA news agency: "You can't just draw a blanket over it and pretend it never happened.
"It does happen and unfortunately there are not as many people like myself and Christian who live to tell the tale.
"For the average person, they don't need to think about it. It goes to the back of their minds.
"Everyone will be talking about it this week but in two weeks they will be talking about who scored a goal in the semi-final of the Euros.
"That's life, things move on and people forget and talk about what's current.
"The good thing which will come out of this is that Christian makes a full recovery and that it shows these things are important to have in place, so there are even more defibrillators around the country and the world."
SPEEDY RECOVERY
Tottenham, Eriksen's former club, have wished him a speedy recovery on Twitter.
Hopefully the 29-year-old Inter Milan ace can return to the pitch!
FAB'S FEAR
Fabrice Muamba begged ‘please, this is not going to happen again’ as he watched Christian Eriksen collapse on Saturday.
He told GMB: “I was just hoping that the guy can pull through. Christian is a fantastic footballer.
“Aged 29, the guy still has a couple of years left in him to play at the highest level.
“He’s finishing a good season with Inter Milan and to play at a tournament in his home country was the perfect opportunity.
“To watch it and see this happen to a fellow professional player, you are saying, ‘Please, this is not going to happen again.’”
And Eriksen appears to be in high spirits as he posted a picture of himself smiling on Instagram from his hospital bed.
EMOTIONS RUNNING HIGH
Barcelona's Martin Braithwaite and Danish team-mate of Christian Eriksen still feels emotional.
He said: "I am still emotional about the situation.
“Most importantly Christian is feeling better and therefore I am feeling better too.
“His health is the most important thing of all. It was important for me personally to see that he felt better via video.
“I had some pictures in my head from last Saturday that I would like to get rid of.
“We were all about to lose a friend and a team-mate. It’s not something you normally think of on a football pitch. Joy and love are normal. No one can prepare for what happened.”
SMILE!
Christian Eriksen has shared a photo from his hospital bed on Instagram.
And the Danish midfielder appears to be in good spirits, which is fantastic to see!
He captioned the post: "Hello everyone.
"Big thanks for your sweet and amazing greetings and messages from all around the world.
"It means a lot to me and my family. ♥️🙏
"I'm fine - under the circumstances. I still have to go through some examinations at the hospital, but I feel okay.
"Now, I will cheer on the boys on the Denmark team in the next matches. Play for all of Denmark 🇩🇰. Best, Christian."
ERIKSEN TIMELINE
Here's a timeline of events from last Saturday.
ERIKSEN THE BRAVE
Denmark star Christian Eriksen released his first statement since his cardiac arrest.
The 29-year-old sent a brief message to the public in quotes reported by Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport.
Eriksen said: “Thank you all, I won’t give up. I feel better now but I want to understand what happened. I want to say thank you for all you did for me.”
QUICK THINKING
The medics did a fantastic job!
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN LATEST
Christian Eriksen has spoken for the first time since his cardiac arrest on Saturday.
The 29-year-old sent a brief message to the public in quotes reported by Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport.
Eriksen said: “Thank you all, I won’t give up. I feel better now but I want to understand what happened. I want to say thank you for all you did for me.”
In other news, Uefa threatened Denmark with a 3-0 loss if they failed to complete their match with Finland, Peter Schmeichel has sensationally revealed.
He told GMB: “They said the players insisted on playing. I know that not to be the truth. Or that’s how you see the truth.
“They were left with three options. One was to play immediately and get the last 50 minutes played. The next one was to come in yesterday at 12 noon and finish the 50 minutes.
“And the third option was to forfeit the game and lose 3-0. So, you know, work it out for yourself. Is it the players’ wish to play? Did they have any choice really? I don’t think they had.
“And as you can hear from [Sunday's] press conference, the coach seriously regrets putting the players back on the pitch.”
Meanwhile, Inter Milan have been forced to deny rumours Eriksen’s cardiac arrest was related to the Covid vaccine.
Inter director Giuseppe Marotta said: “He didn’t have Covid and wasn’t vaccinated either. At this moment, Eriksen is under the guidance of the Danish medical staff.
“It is right that they release information, but I can say the Inter medical staff have been in contact with them from the start."
And finally, AC Milan are considering making Denmark hero Simon Kjaer their captain.
The Dane stopped Christian Eriksen from swallowing his tongue before performing CPR on his stricken team-mate.
And the Italian giants are thinking about making him their permanent skipper as a result, according to Sportsmediaset.
BRAITHWAITE CONTINUED
Martin Braithwaite has revealed he is still feeling emotional following Christian Eriksen's cardiac arrest.
He said: "I am still emotional about the situation.
"Most importantly Christian is feeling better and therefore I am feeling better too.
"His health is the most important thing of all. It was important for me personally to see that he felt better via video.
"I had some pictures in my head from last Saturday that I would like to get rid of.
"We were all about to lose a friend and a team-mate. It's not something you normally think of on a football pitch. Joy and love are normal. No one can prepare for what happened."
NOT A S-MART CHOICE
Denmark striker Martin Braithwaite has claimed that Denmark's decision to play Finland following Christian Eriksen's cardiac arrest was the 'least bad decision'.
He said: "None of the options were good. We took the least bad one. There were lots of players who were unable to play.
"We were in a bad place. We made the least bad decision.
"We were told we had to make a decision. That's the only thing I can say. I wished there was a third option. Because I did not want to go out again.
"But Uefa said there were two options. We made a decision because we knew we would not be able to sleep that night."
BLIND FAITH
Daley Blind considered withdrawing from Holland’s Euro 2020 opener after seeing his former Ajax team-mate and friend Christian Eriksen collapse after suffering a cardiac arrest on Saturday.
The former Manchester United star has been fitted with an implanted defibrillator after being diagnosed with heart muscle inflammation.
Blind left the pitch in tears following Holland’s 3-2 win over Ukraine on Sunday.
He told Dutch broadcaster NOS: “Yesterday had a huge impact on me. Besides the fact that I know Christian well as a friend, the situation for him is terrible.
“Of course I have also experienced a few things in that area, so that I had to overcome a mental hurdle to play.
“I had a lot of trouble with it, but I’m proud that I did it. Then all the emotion comes out for a while.
“I’ve definitely thought about not taking part. The images and the moment had a lot of impact and I didn’t sleep very well because of them. I really had to overcome a big hurdle to do this.”
CARDIAC ARREST EXPLAINED
What is a cardiac arrest?
Find out what happened to Christian Eriksen below.
ERIKSEN TIMELINE
FAB’S FEARS
Fabrice Muamba begged ‘please, this is not going to happen again’ as he watched Christian Eriksen collapse.
He told GMB: “I was just hoping that the guy can pull through. Christian is a fantastic footballer.
“Aged 29, the guy still has a couple of years left in him to play at the highest level.
“He’s finishing a good season with Inter Milan and to play at a tournament in his home country was the perfect opportunity.
“To watch it and see this happen to a fellow professional player, you are saying, ‘Please, this is not going to happen again.’”
CAPTAIN KJAER
AC Milan are considering making Denmark hero Simon Kjaer their captain, according to reports.
The Dane stopped Christian Eriksen from swallowing his tongue before performing CPR on his stricken team-mate on Saturday.
And the Italian giants are thinking about making him their permanent skipper as a result, according to Sportsmediaset.
Milan legend - and the club's technical director - Paolo Maldini is said to support the move.
And Kjaer also has the fans' backing with some supporters even starting a social media campaign to get him the armband, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
MORE FROM SCHMEICHEL
Asked about his own recollection of the harrowing situation, the Foxes stopper added: "It's a violent experience.
"But he is here today, and I am very grateful for that. The only heroes there are are the doctors who saved him.
"We are professional football players, but these people dedicate their lives to saving people. That they could do it under that pressure.
"I cannot describe how much admiration I have for them. That they could bring him back is a miracle.
"I even think about how I would have my team-mates react if I was lying there. And then we have some amazing people on this team. A captain and a coach who knows how to act.
"It characterises us as a team and country that we stand together until the very end.
"Personally, I tried to imagine if it was me who was lying there. I knew Christian's wife, children, and parents were there, so at one point I tried to look for them.
"It is an inhuman situation for them to go through."
'WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE'
Kasper Schmeichel said it was 'damn nice' to see Christian Eriksen laughing and smiling in hospital after his cardiac arrest.
The 34-year-old said: "It was damn nice to see him smile and laugh and be himself. Just notice that he is there.
"It was a wonderful experience and something that has helped me see that he was okay after lying there.
"We talked about nothing and everything. As long as he is well - that has been the most important thing. He has experienced something that we have not experienced.
"He has a completely different experience of the situation. It was great to talk to him, and now we have a lot of work to try to navigate."
NO JAB
Inter Milan have been forced to deny rumours Christian Eriksen's cardiac arrest was related to the Covid vaccine.
Inter director Giuseppe Marotta said: "He didn't have Covid and wasn't vaccinated either. At this moment, Eriksen is under the guidance of the Danish medical staff.
"It is right that they release information, but I can say the Inter medical staff have been in contact with them from the start.
"The players are very close and we all immediately communicated with each other after seeing those images. We didn't want to be invasive and so tried to respect his convalescence once we had been reassured."
ICYMI
Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand has blasted Uefa for giving his players a ‘tough choice’ after Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch on Saturday.
He said: “I think it was the wrong thing to make the decision between the two scenarios in this case.
“The players didn’t know if they lost their best friend and they had to decide [whether to play].
“I have a feeling we shouldn’t have played, to just get on the bus and go home and see what the next days brought.
“It was a tough message that the players had to try and make a decision. I have a sense that it was wrong the players were put in this situation.
“I am really proud to be the coach of a team that responded the way they did. Football showed its best face. Team spirit, compassion and love is what football is really about.”
ERIKSEN'S AGENT SPEAKS
Christian Eriksen's friend and agent Martin Schoots said, as reported by Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport: "We spoke this morning [Sunday].
"He joked, he was in a good mood, I found him fine. We all want to understand what happened to him, he wants to do it too: the doctors are carrying out in-depth examinations, it will take time.
"He was happy because he understood how much love is around. Messages have reached him from all over the world.
"And he was particularly impressed by those of the Inter world: not only the team-mates he heard through the chat, but also the fans.
"Christian doesn't give up. He and his family want to send their thanks to everyone.
"Half the world has contacted us, everyone was worried.
"Now he just has to rest, with him are his wife and parents. Also tomorrow [Monday] he will remain under observation, perhaps even on Tuesday.
"But in any case he wants to cheer on his team-mates against Belgium."
KEEP AN EYE OUT
Kasper Schmeichel reassured Christian Eriksen’s wife Sabrina Kvist Jensen that her husband was alive as he supported her on the side of the pitch.
Schmeichel’s dad Peter told BBC Radio 5 Live: “That would be the worst two hours in my time in football. We had absolutely no information but we could see it was very, very serious.
“You look at the reaction of the players and it happened not very far from all the wives of the players and, of course, Christian’s wife would have seen that.
“She came on to the pitch and you could see from the reaction of the players; I saw my son Kasper run over to her, and I spoke to him last night.
“He said that Christian is breathing. She actually thought that he’d passed away, and just to confirm that (he was breathing) he went back to be absolutely sure that he wasn’t saying anything that was out of order.
“By then Christian was talking to the doctor and we could see there was a little bit of calm there, but until it was confirmed it was really terrible to watch it all and to understand why a fit, 29-year-old player at this level and how it can happen like that.
“And having a son there, straight away you relate that to yourself.”
