'I was gone from this world for five minutes' - Eriksen reflects on near death experience & looks ahead to Brentford debut

Christian Eriksen has reflected on his near-death experience at last summer's European Championships, confirming he "was gone from this world for five minutes", while also looking ahead to his debut with Brentford.

Eriksen has not played any competitive football since suffering a cardiac arrest during Denmark's Euro 2020 opener against Finland back in June.

The 29-year-old had to be resuscitated on the pitch before undergoing extensive testing in hospital and being fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), and he has now opened up on the surreal experience in detail.

“I was gone from this world for five minutes until they got my heartbeat back," Eriksen told BBC Sport. 

"It is a bit out of the world experience, weird, because it did happen and I was where I was, but to see where I am now then is very weird.”

Asked if he remembers what happened before his collapse against Finland, the midfielder replied: "I can remember everything apart from the five minutes, the throw in, the ball hitting my knee and then I don’t know what happened after.

"Then I woke up with people around me and felt the pressure on my chest, trying to get my breathing back. That time I had no idea what happened then it goes through my head did something happen with my legs, did I break my back?

"Can I lift my leg up, all small things I was trying to do to see what happened then in the ambulance I heard someone say ‘how long was I out for’ and someone said ‘five minutes’ and that was the first time I had heard I was gone."

Eriksen also expressed his gratitude towards Denmark's medical staff, his team-mates and the thousands of supporters that sent him messages during his recovery.

“The first thing is to show gratitude to the people