Danish players lament options after Eriksen’s collapse
COPENHAGEN — Danish players expressed dissatisfaction on Monday at the position they were put in after teammate Christian Eriksen’s collapse during their Euro 2020 opener on Saturday, having to decide whether to finish the match that evening or the next morning.
UEFA offered the players, who gathered in the locker room after witnessing Eriksen being treated on the pitch following a cardiac arrest, the choice of resuming the match on Saturday night or beginning again on Sunday at noon local time.
“We were put in a position which I personally don’t think we should have been put in,” Denmark’s goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel told reporters on Monday.
“It probably required that someone above us had said that it was not the time to make a decision and maybe should wait for the next day,” he added.
His teammate Martin Braithwaite agreed.
“You could have wished for a third option in this situation,” he said. “None of the options were good. We took the least bad one. There were a lot of players that weren’t able to play the match. They were elsewhere (mentally).”
UEFA said it had dealt with the matter as carefully as it could at the time, however.
“UEFA is sure it treated the matter with utmost respect for the sensitive situation and for the players. It was decided to restart the match only after the two teams requested to finish the game on the same evening.
“The players’ need for 48 hours’ rest between matches eliminated other options,” it said.
Eriksen collapsed just before halftime and was taken to hospital after receiving CPR on the pitch. After a long suspension of one hour and 45 minutes, the game resumed at and the Finns went on to win 1-0.
Jonas Baer-hoffman, general secretary of international players’ union FIFPRO, said the decision should not have been made in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
“It would have been better to cancel the game in that evening. Take a bit of time, take a breath, look at it with a bit more distance, look at what are the options to carry on with the game or not, and if the game can’t be replayed then I think also that would not be very important in comparison to what happened there to Christian,” he told Reuters.
“The players were probably not given a real option in terms of taking a good decision that was in that moment in balance with where they were mentally,” he added.
“There’s a lot of lessons that need to be drawn from this,” he said, adding that they would be conducting a review with UEFA.
Denmark’s coach Kasper Hjulmand said on Sunday that he did not think that the players should have been back on the pitch.
The Danish Football Association said on Monday that the 29-year-old Eriksen remained in stable condition in hospital.
Eriksen’s agent said he has been undergoing detailed examinations since Saturday’s on-field incident.
“We all want to understand what happened to him and he wants to as well. The doctors are doing some detailed examinations, it will take time,” Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday cited Eriksen’s agent Martin Schoots as saying.
“Christian does not give up. Him and his family want to send everyone their thanks.”
“We spoke this morning (Sunday). He was joking around and in good spirits, he was doing well,” he added.
The incident raises questions around the workload players have been subjected to. Eriksen was playing in his 66th competitive game in the one year since soccer restarted following a shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The messages of support for Eriksen have come pouring in, from within the game and beyond, something that Schoots said has helped cheer up the Dane.
“He was happy because he understood how much love he has around him,” Schoots added. “He received messages from all over the world.
“He was particularly struck by those from the world of Inter Milan; not just from his teammates, who he heard from through texts, but also the fans.
“Half the world has contacted us, everyone is worried. Now he just needs to rest. His wife and parents are with him. But ,in any case, he wants to support his teammates against Belgium.”