Danish soccer player Christian Eriksen collapses during Denmark-Ukraine friendly

Danish soccer player Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch in a match against Ukraine on Sunday but was conscious, the Danish Football Federation said in a social media post.

“Christian Eriksen is conscious and is doing well under the circumstances,” the federation said in a statement on X, adding that the friendly had been called off.

Sunday’s incident marked the second time the 34-year-old playmaker collapsed on the turf while representing his country. In 2021, he collapsed during his side’s opening European Championship group game against Finland in Copenhagen.

Eriksen received life-saving CPR treatment and was later fitted with a special heart-starting device known as an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, and he managed to resume his career at both the club and international level.

On Sunday, Eriksen collapsed about 20 minutes into the second half, and a sense of shock descended over the stadium as fans realized which player had gone down.

Much as the players from both Denmark and Finland had done five years ago, the Danish and Ukrainian footballers quickly formed a ring around Eriksen while he was being attended to by medics, and he was eventually able to walk to an ambulance.

“Christian is doing well and walked from the field himself. As I see it, the pacemaker is working as it should. He was briefly gone but very quickly regained consciousness, and we were quickly in contact with him,” Denmark team doctor Morten Boesen told Danish media.

“He will now be examined further in the hospital to find out what caused the incident. We are in constant contact with him and the doctors at the hospital. But Christian is doing well, and he asked me to talk to all the players and say that he was OK.”

Neither Denmark nor Ukraine qualified for this year’s FIFA World Cup. Denmark was leading 2-1 on Sunday when the match was abandoned.