CLOSE CALL
Christian Eriksen opens up on Euro 2020 cardiac arrest and reveals he died for FIVE minutes before medics saved his life
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN has revealed he DIED for five minutes following his horrific collapse at Euro 2020.
The midfielder in Denmark's Euro 2020 opener against Finland last June.
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But the former Tottenham and Inter Milan ace was eventually revived thanks to the quick thinking of team-mate Simon Kjaer and the incredible work of the pitchside doctors.
Eriksen opened up on the incident during a candid interview with , revealing his heart stopped for five minutes.
He said: "It was amazing that so many people felt the need to write or send flowers.
"It had an impact on so many people and they felt the need to let me and my family know.
"That made me very happy.
"At the hospital, they kept saying I'd receive more and more flowers.
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"It was weird because I didn't expect people to send flowers - because I died for five minutes.
"It was quite extraordinary, but it was very nice of everyone and it's been a big help to me to receive all those best wishes.
"And people still write to me."
Eriksen, 29, has thanked all those who helped save his life - as well as their loved ones.
He added: "I've thanked people I've met in person, I've thanked the doctors, my team-mates and their families in person.
"But all the fans who have sent thousands of letters, emails and flowers or who comes up to me in the street - both in Italy and Denmark - I thank them all for the support that I got from all over the world that helped me through this."
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Eriksen shared a snippet of his heartfelt interview with his 899,000 Twitter followers.
The Dane tweeted: "It’s been a while.
"I hope this video explains how I feel towards all the messages, letters, emails, flowers, thoughts and everything else I’ve got!
"Thank you for all the love."
Eriksen's playing future is unclear following his out-of-the-blue cardiac arrest - which led to him being fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD).
The Denmark international had his contract with Italian champions Inter Milan terminated by mutual consent in December.
An Inter statement read: "FC Internazionale Milano announces that an agreement has been reached for the consensual termination of Christian Eriksen’s contract.
“The club and the entire Nerazzurri family embrace the player and wish him the best for his future.
“Christian was a key figure in our march to the Scudetto – a team effort which Eriksen contributed to with his vision, intuition, passing, assists and goals, including some big ones.”
Despite his near-death experience, free agent Eriksen has no intention of hanging up his boots.
He said: "My goal is to play in the World Cup in Qatar. I want to play.
"That's been my mindset all along.
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"It's a goal, it's a dream. Whether I'll be picked is another thing. But it's my dream to come back.
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"I'm sure I can come back because I don\t feel any different. Physically, I'm back in top shape.
"That's my goal and it's still some time away. So until then, I'm just going to play football and prove that I'm back at the same level."
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