A few days after his cardiac arrest during the European Championship game against Finland, Danish soccer star Christian Eriksen is given an implantable defibrillator.

The Danish association announced this Thursday.

This cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is similar to a pacemaker and is implanted in people who are at increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias.

The introduction of the ICD does not mean that the 29-year-old from Inter Milan will automatically have to end his professional career.

The Dutch international Daley Blind and the German pole vaulter Katharina Bauer continue to do competitive sports.

“Various heart examinations were carried out on Christian.

It was then decided that he should have an ICD.

This decision is necessary after cardiac arrhythmias had triggered a heart attack in him, ”the Danish team doctor Morten Boesen is quoted in the association's statement.

Eriksen agrees to treatment

In the past few days, Boesen was in regular contact with the heart specialists at the treating hospital in Copenhagen.

Eriksen himself had already consented to this treatment.

The Danish playmaker collapsed on the pitch during the European Championship game against Finland (0-1) last Saturday and was revived.

As the Cologne-based emergency doctor in the stadium reported to the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe”, the defibrillator was used in Eriksen's case after just a few minutes of cardiac massage and the electric shock was triggered once.

“About 30 seconds later the player opened his eyes and I was able to speak to him directly.

That was a very moving moment, because with such medical emergencies in everyday life the chances of success are much lower, ”said intensive care physician Jens Kleinefeld.

According to his own statements, the doctor was 99 percent certain that Eriksen would arrive at the hospital in a stable manner and that he would remain stable there.

“When a professional athlete has been medically checked, it is usually a kind of“ short circuit ”that triggers the ventricular fibrillation.

The electric shock then gives the decisive impetus to get the heart beating again, ”he said.

"With someone like that - unlike normal patients, for example with previous illnesses - the probability that the heart will stop again is minimal." In their second European Championship game, the Danes will meet this Thursday (6:00 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the football EM as well as on ZDF and MagentaTV) on Belgium.