Almost seven months after collapsing on the field at Eurocup, victim of a heart attack, midfielder Christian Eriksen says he is ready to return to playing professionally.
The Dane, who said he died “for five minutes” in the match against Finland in Copenhagen on June 12 last year, before doctors were able to revive him, says he feels fit and motivated.
He hopes to compete in the World Cup in Qatar in December, when he will be 30 years old.
“I want play [na Copa]. It’s a goal, it’s a dream,” he told the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, a public media conglomerate in Denmark, in a televised interview.
“If I’m going to be selected [pelo treinador Kasper Hjulmand], is something else. But I’m sure I can go back [a jogar] because I don’t feel different. I’ll play football and show I’m back on the same level [de antes]”.
Eriksen, who has trained under medical supervision, may not feel different, but he can’t deny that there is something different about him. Something tangible. An object. Inside him.
After the heart attack – I watched the match on TV and was in agony, I was sure he had died – he received an implant. He lives since then, in his body, with a defibrillator.
This device, called an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) and long-lasting battery, is located close to the heart and is connected to this muscle by electrodes.
Weighing 70 grams and with a thickness of 13 millimeters, it has the function of monitoring the heart rhythm and correcting it, if and when necessary, by means of electric shocks.
It is a kind of lifesaver for those who have heart disorders.
Having described this, the question remains: what makes someone, even after such a scare, having been so close to losing their life (and their partner, and a son, and a daughter), be sure they want to risk it?
In addition to this question, another one that many people ask, and it is natural for it to be asked, is this: is it safe?
It may be difficult to understand, but it is not difficult to answer the first question. Eriksen sees no point in not doing what he loves most in life: playing football.
He firmly believes that he is fine, that what happened to him has already been overcome and will never happen again, and this gives him the confidence to return to the pitch and have the chance to participate in his third World Cup.
Regarding the second question, the answer is: no, it is not completely safe.
The device Eriksen uses will certainly help, but there’s no guarantee that it’s foolproof.
Dutchman Daley Blind, 31, of Ajax and the Dutch national team, received a diagnosis and inflammation of the heart after a game in which he felt dizzy in December 2019.
The former side, now a defender, started using a CDI at the beginning of 2020 and continued his career.
Everything went well until a friendly in August 2020, against Hertha Berlin, when he collapsed on the pitch. The defibrillator has collapsed. Why? Because it’s a device, and devices are fallible: they fail, wear out, break down.
There is also the possibility that the characteristics of football could result in a problem with the defibrillator. It is a contact sport, and a stronger bump can cause damage to the device and affect its functioning, without the user noticing.
In a text on the website of Gecesp (Sports Cardiology Studies Group), the renowned cardiologist Nabil Ghorayeb says, about the CDI: “In the sports area there are important restrictions and some precautions, especially with contact sports and with risk of bodily trauma , as the cables of the device may come loose or break”.
Blind left that friendly, recovered, and a month later was ready for another one.
This occurrence did not discourage him, and after that nothing more serious was reported. He continues to play normally.
“There’s no reason why I couldn’t be performing at a high level. The most important thing is that you feel free in your mind”, declared the Dutchman in a text published in the British tabloid Metro.
“Once the doctors say you’re OK to play, you just feel the tension and excitement of playing, not the tension of fear. That’s why I say to everyone, ‘Let Christian [Eriksen] in peace’.”
Reported the case of Blind, returning to Eriksen, the certainties that exist are the following.
1) If Eriksen does not return to play, it will not be as a result of this activity that he will have any complications in his heart. It may even have, but the chance decreases considerably.
2) If Eriksen returns to play, there are two possibilities: a) nothing serious will happen, he will be right about his fearlessness, and the CDI will be mega-valued; b) the worst will happen, it will be wrong, and the device will lose a fair share of its credit.
There is one extra certainty: Eriksen will not play for an Italian club again. Local rules do not allow someone with an ICD to engage in competitive sporting activities.
However, the midfielder, arguably Denmark’s best outfield player in recent years, has a market, and there are countries where there is no such ban.
One of the alternatives is to return to England, to Tottenham, a club he defended before moving to Internazionale in 2020.
The Milan team, current national champions, amicably terminated the player’s contract last month. The deal would run until 2024.
Italian Antonio Conte, coach of the London team and who coached Eriksen at Inter, declared two days ago that “the doors are open” for the Dane.
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