‘Fine under the circumstances’: Christian Eriksen sends message to fans

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A smiling Christian Eriksen has insisted he is “fine – under the circumstances” as doctors work to determine the cause of his cardiac arrest.

The 29-year-old Denmark midfielder continues to undergo tests in hospital after collapsing on the pitch during Saturday’s game against Finland at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen.

On Tuesday he posted on Instagram a photograph of himself making a thumbs-up gesture. The image was accompanied by a message to his 3.2m followers which read: “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 OK. Now, I will cheer on the boys on the Denmark team in the next matches. Play for all of Denmark. Best, Christian.”

Eriksen fell to the ground during the first half of the Group B game as he prepared to receive a throw-in. The team doctor Morten Boesen later confirmed Eriksen had suffered a cardiac arrest and “was gone”.

Denmark are due to return to action at the same venue on Thursday evening, when they face Belgium. And their coach, Kasper Hjulmand, said it would be “very emotional” for his players. “I have said – very apropos – that Christian is the heart of our team. He is the pulse, the rhythm of our game,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “No one can replace Christian … But together we will do something together, something different.”

Uefa offered the players, who gathered in the changing room, the choice of resuming the match on Saturday evening or beginning again on Sunday at 12pm local time. Hjulmand, however, sharpened his criticism of its handling of the incident.

“I felt that the players and I were being put under pressure. That is the truth. Everything else is not true,” he said. “I would have liked if Uefa had said: of course there will be no more playing tonight, go home and we’ll look at it later.”

Uefa insisted on Monday it had dealt with the matter as carefully as it could at the time. “It was decided to restart the match only after the two teams requested to finish the game on the same evening,” it said.

Source: The Guardian

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