Danish footballer Eriksen collapses during Ukraine match

Danish football player Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch in a match against Ukraine on Sunday, but was conscious, the Danish Football Federation (DBU) 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, adding that the friendly had been called off.

Sunday's incident marked the second time the 34-year-old playmaker collapsed to the turf while representing his country.

In 2021 he collapsed during his side's opening European Championship group game against Finland in Copenhagen.

He received life-saving CPR treatment and was later fitted with a special heart-starting device known as an Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD), and he managed to resume his career at both club and international level.

There was a dreadful sense of deja vu for Danish football on Sunday as Eriksen collapsed around 20 minutes into the second half, and a sense of shock descended over the stadium as fans realised which player it was that had gone down.

Much as the players from both Denmark and Finland had done five years ago, the Danish and Ukrainian footballers quickly formed a ring around Eriksen while he was being attended to by medics, and he was eventually able to walk to an ambulance.

"Christian is doing well and walked from the field himself. As I see it, the pacemaker is working as it should. He was briefly gone, but very quickly regained consciousness, and we were quickly in contact with him," DBU doctor Morten Boesen told Danish media.

"He will now be examined further in the hospital to find out what caused the incident. We are in constant contact with him and the doctors at the hospital. But Christian is doing well, and he asked me to talk to all the players and say that he was okay."

Neither Denmark nor Ukraine qualified for this year's World Cup. Denmark were leading 2-1 on Sunday when the match was abandoned.