Denmark head coach Kasper Hjulmand has praised his players for their conduct as teammate Christian Eriksen was being treated on the pitch against Finland.
Eriksen collapsed in the the 41st minute of the Group B game and had CPR on the field before being resuscitated and taken to hospital where he is currently in a stable condition.
AFP
The Danish players formed a wall around Eriksen to protect his privacy as he was receiving treatment.
Meanwhile they would only consider taking to the field again if they knew their teammate was okay, and he gave them the go ahead via a facetime call.
Hjulmand said after the match, a 1-0 loss: “First of all, if it gets emotional, it’s been a tough night. We are all reminded of what the most important thing in life is – to have valuable relationships, people we’re close to, our family and our friends.
“We have a group of players that I cannot praise enough. I couldn’t be prouder of those people who took such good care of each other. He is one of my very dear friends, the way the players talked in the dressing room to decide to not do anything before we knew Christian was conscious and okay.
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“We had two options to play the game [today] or tomorrow at 12pm and everyone agreed to play today. You can’t play a game with such feelings. We tried to win. It was incredible they managed to go out and try to play the second half.
“Honestly, there were players out there that were completely done. Emotionally done and emotionally exhausted.”
AFP
Hjulmand also added that captain Simon Kjær, a good friend of Eriksen’s, had to be withdrawn after the restart.
Kjaer was one of the first to help the stricken Eriksen, clearing his airways, while he would help form the chain of players protecting his teammate from prying eyes.
He would also console Eriksen’s girlfriend as her partner was still being treated but, after choosing to restart the game, he felt he couldn’t make it to the end.
“Simon was deeply, deeply affected,” he added. “Deeply affected. He was in doubt whether he could continue and gave it a shot, but it could not be done.”
AFP
Belgium are Denmark’s next opponents on Thursday in Copenhagen but for now they team are concentrating on processing a challenging situation.
“There is the opportunity to get help,” Hjulmand said. “We are trying to pick ourselves up now and get ourselves sorted as much as we can. We have professionals with us. We will talk about it tonight, try to process it and move on together.”
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