Denmark star Christian Eriksen is unlikely to play football again and Italy may ban the Inter Milan player from competing again if he has suffered a cardiac arrest, according to a leading cardiologist.
The 29-year-old collapsed on the pitch during Denmark’s Euro 2020 match with Finland on Saturday afternoon with a suspected cardiac arrest – with reports claiming the midfielder’s heart stopped for five minutes on the pitch.
The Denmark captain needed to be resuscitated and was stabilised by the time he was transferred to hospital, though there are still fears over his long-term health and his playing career.
Dr Scott Murray, a leading NHS consultant cardiologist specialising in prevention of heart problems, claims Italy pride themselves on their record of preventing cardiac arrests in football – so the Danish player’s problems will likely spell the end of his time in Serie A.
He told the Daily Mail: “It probably is (the end of his career) for him. The Italians stop people participating in sport if they are found to have a significant cardiac abnormality, it’s in law.
“They’ve been doing that for a long time, beyond 20 years and they’ve reduced the death rates from cardiac arrests in sport from beyond 3 per cent down to below one per cent.’
Dr Murray claims Italy, where Eriksen plays his club football with Inter, have one of the best systems in the world for checking and predicting potential heart problems – and the fact that Eriksen still suffered a cardiac arrest having shows how dangerous and unsuspecting heart problems can be.
He continued: “He (Eriksen) comes from an Italian club so he must have had all of the tests before he started. The Italians are the best at screening for heart disease in competitive athletes.
“Italy has the greatest pre-participation screening in the world which tries to reduce events, but he still has an event on the pitch. So even if you screen, it can still happen.
“It’s going to be difficult for him to eliminate, he’s still going to have that 0.01 per cent of people who will still have something happen.”