Eriksen knew he would play football again two days after cardiac arrest

Denmark’s midfielder Christian Eriksen controls the ball during the UEFA EURO 2020 Group B football match between Denmark and Finland at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen on June 12, 2021. (Photo by Friedemann Vogel / various sources / AFP)

Christian Eriksen says he knew he would play football again just two days after suffering a cardiac arrest at last year’s Euro 2020 as he starts a new chapter of his career with Brentford.

The Denmark playmaker collapsed on the pitch against Finland in June and on the way to the hospital in Copenhagen he told his wife Sabrina that he would probably never play football again.

But the 29-year-old was fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) and doctors gave him hope he could return to the sport.

Eriksen was unable to continue his career with Inter Milan because rules do not permit footballers fitted with the device to play in Italy but he signed for Premier League side Brentford on the final day of the January transfer window.

Speaking to club media for the first time on Monday, he said: “On the way to the hospital I told Sabrina I may as well leave my boots here.

“It changed two days later. It was in the moment. I recognised what happened to me later on that night and the next few days.

“Then all the tests started and all the knowledge started to come in and all the questions were being asked ‘Can I do this? Can I do that?’ and listen to the doctors.”

Eriksen, who has signed a contract until the end of the season, said he had many tests to assess how his heart was reacting to physical training but the results were positive.

“Then, every month I could really push it and then I could play,” he said. “But the feeling of getting to hear from the doctors that even with an ICD there