Soccer fans watching last weekend’s European Championship were witness to an awful event. In the 43rd minute of the first half, Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch. Players from both teams quickly summoned the medics as it was obvious that this was serious.
Luckily the medical staff and the players realized the severity of the situation and Eriksen was given CPR and oxygen on the field before being taken to the hospital. It was later revealed that the 29-year-old had suffered a cardiac arrest and could have died if he had not received immediate attention. The good news is that Eriksen survived. However, it’s unclear what would cause a young athlete in great physical shape to suddenly experience an attack such as this.
Unfortunately, the soccer world has seen this happen before. Lessons from the past may be the reason that Eriksen was saved.
In a 2003 Confederations Cup match Cameroonian midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed in the second half. The medical staff tried to revive him and he was carried off on a stretcher to receive further treatment, Doctors tried for 45 minutes to resuscitate the 28-year-old with no success. He later died. His cause of death was determined to be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
During a 2007 match in La Liga, 22-year-old Sevilla midfielder Antonio Puerta collapsed on the pitch. He was able to walk off with the help of medical staff but collapsed again in the team’s dressing room. He was rushed to the hospital and died three days later from multiple organ failure after a prolonged cardiac arrest.
In March 2012, midfielder Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed during the first half of an FA Cup quarter-final match between Bolton and Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. Muamba received immediate attention from medical personnel, including a fan in the stands who happened to be a cardiologist. He was later taken to the hospital where he survived and it was later revealed that he had been technically "dead" for 78 minutes before he was revived. He had to abandon his football career, but more importantly, his life was saved.
Near the end of his football career, 30-year-old Cheik Tiote moved overseas to play in China’s League One. In June 2017, the Ivorian midfielder suffered a cardiac arrest during a training session. He was rushed to the hospital where he died.
One of the saddest cases involved 20-year-old Dutch player Abdelhak Nouri. During a 2017 pre-season match, the Ajax player collapsed on the pitch in Austria. He was attended to by team doctors. Seven minutes later local medics arrived and connected a defibrillator. Nouri was taken to the hospital by a trauma helicopter, and his condition was announced as stable. Nouri was put in an induced coma and the first signs were positive. A few days later, however, further tests showed he had suffered serious brain damage. Nouri’s team, Ajax, later admitted that their medical treatment of Nouri was "inadequate".
What all these incidents illustrate is that life is more valuable and important than a football match. Of course, we want our teams to win, but we also don’t want to see a life lost due to a game. It certainly puts things in perspective.