3 min readJun 8, 2026 09:25 AM IST
First published on: Jun 8, 2026 at 12:01 AM IST
Denmark’s Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch in a match vs Ukraine on Sunday, leading to match getting called off. However, the playmaker was conscious, the Danish Football Federation said in a social media post. “Christian Eriksen is conscious and is doing well under the circumstances,” the federation said in a statement on X. Neither Denmark nor Ukraine have qualified for the World Cup.
TV images showed the 34-year-old Erikson clutching his chest with both hands in the 65th minute of Denmark’s international friendly against Ukraine at Nature Energy Park in Odense. In the next TV image shown, Erikson was on the ground, surrounded by players.
“Christian is doing well and walked off the pitch by himself. As I see it, the pacemaker responded as it should. He was briefly unconscious, but regained consciousness very quickly, and we were quickly in contact with him. He will now undergo further examinations at the hospital to determine what caused the incident,” said Denmark team doctor Morten Boesen as per BBC.
The incident brought back horrible memories from 2021 when Eriksen had collapsed during a Euro 2020 match vs Finland in Copenhagen and was given life-saving CPR treatment.
His collapse, which came in the 43rd minute of the match against Finland, led to the game being suspended for about 90 minutes before both teams made the decision to play on. Finland went on to win 1-0 after Joel Pohjanpalo scored in the 60th minute and goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky later saved a penalty. But in the end, the result seemed merely an afterthought.
Eriksen was later fitted with a special heart-starting device known as an Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD).
In 2025, Eriksen left Manchester United and was transferred to German club Wolfsburg after the midfielder became a free agent when his United contract expired. Eriksen has made 310 appearances in the Premier League. He was at Tottenham between 2013 and 2020. He’s also played for Ajax, Brentford and Inter Milan. He has scored 46 goals in 151 international appearances.
Christian Eriksen collapsed during Denmark’s opening game at the European Championship in 2021. (Reuters Photo/File) 
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