Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand said Christian Eriksen will watch their next Euro 2020 match against Belgium from hospital.
Eriksen, 29, suffered a cardiac arrest in the 42nd minute of Denmark’s opening match against Finland on Saturday and remains in hospital. He is being monitored in the Rigshospitalet, which is just 500 metres from the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, where Denmark play Belgium on Thursday.
“Yeah I think Christian will watch [the game],” Hjulmand told a news conference on Wednesday. “It’s really crazy, the hospital is right next to Parken, and when he looks out of the window he can see Parken and probably he can hear everything from Parken.
“That’s a crazy situation for Christian. But I think he’ll be in his shirt and watch the game.”
Meanwhile, the Danish Football Association has called on UEFA to change its procedures following Eriksen’s collapse and the subsequent decision to resume the game.
The Danes were offered the chance to restart the match the same evening or at 12 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. ET) midday on the following day.
Despite being clearly shaken up, they resumed the match and lost 1-0, but Hjulmand and his players have since said they would have preferred not to have played.
“It was a wrong decision and completely untenable that the players had to be on the field so soon after the horrible experience,” DBU chairman Jesper Moller said in a statement on Wednesday.
“That is a situation players and coaches should not be put in, because it is not and should not be their decision.”
Eriksen suffered a heart attack on the pitch and was taken to hospital where he is now recovering.
UEFA has come in for sharp criticism from former Danish internationals Peter Schmeichel and Michael Laudrup, with the latter saying the choice of resuming on either Saturday or Sunday was not a choice at all.
“We now want an evaluation of the entire decision-making process so that we can get all the relevant facts and information on the table,” Moller said.
“We must look at a change in the rules to ensure that we are never in the same situation again. We are ready to present a resolution to UEFA,” he added.
In a statement to Reuters, UEFA said it “treated the matter with the utmost respect for the sensitive situation and the players. It was decided to restart the match only after the two teams requested to finish the game on the same evening.”
