Denmark and Ukraine will not be playing in the 2026 FIFA World Cup after failing to qualify. The two were playing a friendly on Sunday when the game was suddenly ended due to a medical emergency.
In the 65th minute of the match, Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch and appeared to be holding his chest. The Danish Football Association (DBU) issued a statement about their midfielder after the match, according to Colin Millar of The Athletic.
“Christian Eriksen is conscious and doing well under the circumstances,” a DBU statement read. “The match has been called off.”
Denmark was leading in the game 2-1 at the time of the incident. He was also seen walking to the ambulance and leaving the field with his wife. He was checked out by Denmark’s doctor Morton Boesen.
“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,” Boesen said. “He will now undergo further examinations at the hospital to determine what caused the incident. We are in ongoing contact with him and the doctors at the hospital. But Christian is doing well, and he asked me to send his regards to all the players and tell them that he was okay.”
This was not the first time that Eriksen had collapsed on the pitch. He was playing in the Euro 2020 in June of 2021 when he collapsed just 13 minutes into the event. Eriksen suffered cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated and defibrillated. He had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator implanted to monitor and regulate any abnormal heart rhythms. He would resume his career just six months later, playing for Brentford, before time with Manchester United and Wolfsburg.
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