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When your heart is in the game

I had a couple of ideas for this week’s columns, but most of them can be saved for later.

The one that came to me Sunday morning needs to be gotten out quickly, since it relates to an ongoing sports event with an incredible story.

It starts three years ago at the European Football Championships for 2020, delayed until 2021 due to COVID. In the opening group game for each team, Finland played Denmark in Copenhagen.

Just before halftime in a scoreless match, the ball was played to Demark’s Christian Eriksen. It struck him in the lower legs, but he was already falling over.

He had suffered a cardiac arrest on the field, with nobody from either team having made contact. As he lay on the field with medical teams from both teams and doctors working on him, the stadium was completely silent.

Eriksen was loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled off, then transported to hospital. After consulting with both teams, the referee suspended the game.

Later that day, word came from the hospital that Eriksen was conscious and in good spirits, and the game was resumed, with Finland winning 1-0.

It appeared Eriksen’s career was over, but as we have seen a number of times in different sports in the past few years, a cardiac arrest can be, shall we say, worked around.

On Sunday, at the 2024 Europeans Championships, Denmark took the field again, this time against Slovenia in their opener. Eriksen, to the surprise of some, was named in the starting lineup.

It was exactly 1,100 days since his cardiac incident.

Seventeen minutes into the first half, after Eriksen spent most of his time directing traffic for the Danes and feeding the ball to teammates, Jonas Wind gave the ball a little flick with his foot, and it fell nicely for Eriksen.

Who scored.

I was, as usual, following the BBC live text commentary on the game and, as expected, they were stunned by the way things had worked out.

One of their reporters at the stadium in Stuttgart made sure to note that while the Danish fans near her were ecstatic, many of the Slovenian fans she could see were also applauding – at least for a few minutes until the game resumed.

It was one of those moments you couldn’t have scripted any better.

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