Why does Christian Eriksen have a pacemaker? Denmark midfielder’s health explained after he collapses on pitch again | OneFootball

Christian Eriksen endured another terrifying health episode on Sunday afternoon as he collapsed on the pitch while playing for Denmark in an international friendly against Ukraine.

Eriksen clutched his chest and fell to the ground in the 65th minute before medical personnel rushed to the midfielder’s aid.

He briefly lost consciousness but after being treated, he was able to walk himself off the pitch in Odense before being taken to hospital. The match was subsequently abandoned.

The 34-year-old is now said to be “doing well”, according to national team doctor Morten Boesen, and is expected to be discharged to return home “soon”.

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Christian Eriksen collapsed again while playing for Denmark on Sunday (Reuters)

It comes five years after Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 during Denmark’s group stage match against Finland in June 2021, when his heart stopped for roughly five minutes.

Eriksen received immediate CPR from team-mate and then-captain Simon Kjaer, which proved invaluable in saving his life, before a defibrillator was used on the pitch at Parken in Copenhagen.

He eventually regained consciousness on the field before being stretchered off and rushed to hospital.

There, he was given an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), which can detect dangerous heart rhythms and deliver corrective electrical shocks if necessary, acting like a pacemaker but for fast arrhythmia. Eriksen, whose heart's natural electrical system was unable to maintain a safe or effective heartbeat, had this fitted to reduce the risk of future cardiac arrests.

However, the exact underlying cause of the cardiac arrest was not found, with Eriksen seeing any condition he might have had go undiagnosed.

The former Tottenham star was still able to make a remarkable full recovery, to the extent where he returned to top-level football just eight months later, joining Premier League side Brentford at the beginning of 2022. This was after seeing his contract with Inter Milan mutually terminated, with Italian regulations prohibiting from playing with a pacemaker.

He made an emotional international comeback for Denmark two months later before joining Manchester United that summer, where he played for three years.

He has spent the last season at Wolfsburg, where he made 34 appearances this term as the club suffered a historic first relegation from the Bundesliga in 29 years via the play-offs.

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Eriksen has spent the last season at Wolfsburg (Reuters)

But the future of his playing career is now up in the air after suffering what is suspected to have been another heart episode.

It appears Eriksen’s pacemaker detected potentially life-threatening arrhythmia and therefore delivered a shock to Eriksen, which is why he clutched his chest.

“As I see it, the pacemaker responded as it should,” Boesen said. “He was briefly unconscious, but regained consciousness very quickly, and we were quickly in contact with him.”

This is yet to be confirmed, though, and with doctors exploring all possibilities, they will examine the pacemaker to see if it worked as it should have.

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Eriksen’s pacemaker will be examined by doctors to ensure it worked as it should have (Reuters)

Eriksen may also stand a greater chance of getting a condition diagnosed, with experts now closely examining the heart activity picked up by his ICD before he collapsed.

”He will now undergo further examinations at the hospital to determine what caused the incident,” Boesen added. “We are in constant contact with him and the doctors at the hospital.”

Eriksen has spoken candidly about his experience of cardiac arrest in 2021, telling the BBC that he remembered “everything apart from the five minutes” he was unconscious.

“I remember the throw-in, the ball hitting my knee and then I don’t know what happened after,” he said.

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Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 (Getty)

“Then I woke up with people around me and felt the pressure on my chest, trying to get my breathing back, and then I woke up – I opened my eyes and saw people around me, I didn’t really understand what was going on.

“At that time I had no idea what had happened, then it goes through my head: ‘Did something happen with my legs? Did I break my back? Can I lift my leg up?’ – all small things I was trying to do to see what happened.

“Then in the ambulance I heard someone say: ‘How long was he out for?’ and someone said: ‘Five minutes,’ and that was the first time I had heard I was gone.”

Eriksen is yet to offer an update on his health but will be expected to in due course, with him and his family in “good spirits”.