Christian Eriksen will not be able to play for Inter Milan unless he has his implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) removed, the Italian Football Federation has said.
Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest during Denmark’s opening game of Euro 2020 against Denmark.
He was given CPR on the pitch and resusciated, before being transported to hospital.
The midfielder was stabilised and was discharged six days later after being fitted with an ICD.
The official NHS website explains that an ICD is a device which “sends a larger electrical shock to the heart that essentially “reboots” it to get it pumping again”.
It adds that if the ICD senses the heart is beating at a potentially dangerous abnormal rate, it will deliver an electrical shock to the heart.
The Italian Football Federation have said that Eriksen cannot play in Italy again unless he has the defibrillator removed. He is currently contracted to Serie A champions Inter.
Francesco Braconaro, a member of the IFF’s technical-scientific committee, confirmed the stance to Radio Kiss Kiss.
He said: “Christian Eriksen cannot be given the all-clear to play in Italy.
“If the player has the defibrillator removed, therefore confirming the pathology can be resolved, then he can play for Inter again.”
NHS cardiologist Dr Scott Murray told the Daily Mail last month that in Italy, people with “significant cardiac abnormality” are not allowed to play in sports by law – which explains the IFF’s stance.
He said: “The Italians stop people participating in sport if they are found to have a significant cardiac abnormality, it’s in law.
“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 three per cent down to below one per cent.”
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