Monday, June 14, 2021 at 11:06• Rian Rosendaal

Christian Eriksen’s illness on Saturday during the European Championship match between Denmark and Finland has made a huge impression on his fellow players. Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg, among others, looks back two days later on the much-discussed incident in the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder feared the worst when he saw Eriksen lying on the ground.

“I saw Christian lying there, facing the field,” Höjbjerg said at a Danish Football Association press conference on Monday morning. “His eyes were white and it looked quite strange. Then I see Simon Kjaer run to Christian and wonder what was going on. Then all the doctors and other medical specialists came in. It was a strange sensation and difficult to accept. More and more people from the ER came onto the field and I saw Simon waving his arms,” ​​the inspector reflects on Saturday’s events.

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Simon Braithwaite agrees with Höjbjerg’s words. “We almost lost a friend and teammate,” said the Barcelona attacker. “And that’s not something you take into account when you get on the field, because you go on the field for fun.” Kasper Schmeichel holds on to the fact that despite all the panic there was a good ending on Saturday evening. “It could have been much worse. I am grateful to be part of a team that has really functioned as a unit in recent days. And of course very grateful that Christian is still among us,” said the relieved goalkeeper of the team. Danes, who had telephone contact with Eriksen in the catacombs later in the evening.

Schmeichel then questions the two choices Denmark had after stopping the game with Finland: finish later on Saturday evening or resume the game on Sunday at noon. “I didn’t think it was fair that we ended up in that situation as players with those two choices. Someone higher up the ladder than us might have had to decide for us that no choice could be made at that time,” concludes the keeper, who above all, he is extremely proud of his fellow internationals. “I don’t have the words to describe my feeling for these guys. I couldn’t have been here with anyone else.”

The Danish goalkeeper endured Saturday evening in a kind of daze, including while comforting Sabrina, Eriksen’s wife. “We didn’t think about making decisions and just got to work, a very natural phenomenon. There are no words for what Simon (Kjaer, ed.) has done. He is really an exceptional person. I suggested I imagined I would be lying there on the field. Christian’s wife, children and parents were also present, which is what I was looking for. It is almost inhumane what they had to endure,” said Schmeichel, who together with Kjaer visited Eriksen at the hospital in Copenhagen.

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