Denmark captain Christian Eriksen might never be able to play football again and is likely to get banned by Italy from representing his current club Inter Milan in Serie A  if he suffered a cardiac arrest on Saturday, as per a leading cardiologist in England. Eriksen collapsed on the pitch during the end of the first half in Denmark’s clash against Finland in the ongoing Euro 2020 on Saturday.

As per reports, Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be given immediate CPR on the pitch to be revived. His heart reportedly stopped for five minutes on the pitch but the midfielder managed to recover in time and was taken to a hospital in Copenhagen immediately where he is currently undergoing treatment. The Danish Football Association on Sunday confirmed that Eriksen is stable but remains hospitalized.

 Dr. Scott Murray, a leading cardiologist with the National Health Service (NHS) in England, has claimed Eriksen might never play football again. He stated that the Dame midfielder might also get banned from playing football in Italy as the country doesn’t allow players with significant cardiac abnormality to participate in sports. Eriksen currently plays for Inter Milan in the Italian top-flight – Serie A.

“It probably is (the end of his career) for him. The Italians stop people participating in sport if they are found to have a significant cardiac abnormality, it’s in law,” Murray told DailyMail.

“They’ve been doing that for a long time, beyond 20 years and they’ve reduced the death rates from cardiac arrests in sport from beyond 3 per cent down to below one per cent,” he added.

Eriksen had received CPR treatment from the medical staff present at the stadium immediately after going down during the game. The football world united to send prayers for the attacking midfielder, who is 29 years old. His teammates were also seen comforting his wife, who was in tears and shock after witnessing her husband collapsed. 

Dr. Muarray said Italy have one of the best screening systems when it comes to heart diseases and have managed to reduce cardiac attacks in sports significantly. He highlighted Eriksen’s case in explaining how heart diseases are unpredictable.

“Italy has the greatest pre-participation screening in the world which tries to reduce events, but he still has an event on the pitch. So even if you screen, it can still happen. It’s going to be difficult for him to eliminate, he’s still going to have that 0.01 per cent of people who will still have something happen,” said the cardiologist.