DENMARK BOSS KASPER Hjulmand has criticised the Uefa protocols which allow a match to be postponed for 48 hours due to coronavirus but not when his player Christian Eriksen had a cardiac arrest on the pitch.
Eriksen, who took to Instagram today to insist he was “fine, under the circumstances”, collapsed shortly before half-time in Denmark’s Euro 2020 opener against Finland on Saturday and had to be resuscitated before being taken to hospital.
The match was suspended for about 90 minutes before Denmark were then given the choice to continue playing the game or to return the following day to complete it. After being reassured Eriksen’s condition had improved, the players went back out and ended up losing 1-0.
“Coronavirus allows you to postpone a match for 48 hours. A cardiac arrest obviously does not. That, I think, is wrong,” Hjulmand told a press conference today.
“There is learning here. It was not the right decision to continue playing. The boys showed so much strength by going out and playing on.
“But I do not think it was the right thing to give us and the players the choice to go out and finish play on Saturday or Sunday.
“I felt that the players – and us close to them – were put under that pressure and were given that dilemma. It was a hugely difficult situation to be in.
“The only real leadership would have been to put the players on a bus and send them home and then deal with it after.
“You don’t necessarily find good leadership in the protocols. Good leadership can sometimes be to lead with compassion.”
Denmark return to the Parken Stadium – the scene of Eriksen’s collapse – on Thursday for their second group match against Belgium.
Hjulmand is confident his players will be able to perform but acknowledged the situation would be far from normal.
“I don’t think they’re afraid to play but the normal reaction to a trauma like this, you should know, it’s not only yourself,” he added.
“It’s also your family, maybe your kids, your wife, your parents. So the box of emotions has been opened. I think we took a big step yesterday and I think we’ll take another one today.
“Of course the time until the kick-off will be emotional, and we have to prepare ourselves for that, for entering the stadium again, getting back to see our great fans.
“And up to kick-off there’ll be a lot of emotions we have to handle, and then prepare ourselves for when the referee whistles his first whistle. We will be ready to go and fight and play well and do everything for Denmark.”
Uefa on Monday defended its handling of the incident, saying in a statement: “Uefa is sure it treated the matter with utmost respect for the sensitive situation and for the players.
“It was decided to restart the match only after the two teams requested to finish the game on the same evening. The players’ need for 48 hours’ rest between matches eliminated other options.”
Very easy to blame a few mistakes when in truth the individuals and the system were terrible. Ireland don’t have an offload/continuity game yet that’s what we tried from the first ball against the best team in the world. We didn’t help ourselves with poor kicking and cheap turnovers but to not mention the coaches and tactics in this analysis is very short-sighted
@Mark Dooley: players largely to blame for basic errors. Coaching staff have to take blame for selection of non form & rusty players and for lack of variety to our game since our the win v all blacks. It was a chance for them to throw caution to the wind and start the with at the least Beirne, ruddock & larmour.
Good analysis Murray
@Mark Dooley: this excellent analysis clear shows that the team was well set up tactically as we were creating space but basic errors by players meant we failed to take advantage of those opportunities. In fact we turned the ball over and handed advantage to NZ. Once again an Irish team has not turned up for a World Cup. That for me is a mental issue that we need to face up to and overcome. Blaming coaches, injuries etc only avoiding the truth and the real issue. Interesting to hear Schmidt say they started focusing on this QTR final end last year, just before their form went to shit.
@Mark Dooley: Excellent analysis by Murray. I disagree with you blaming the coaches & tactics. Uncharacteristic errors, missed kicks & missed tackles by players cost us dearly plus NZ were ruthlessly clinical imho.
@David Supple: coaches responsible for selecting out of form players based on what they have done in the past. Kearney in particular was a pick to try and not lose a game rather than win one as he offers nothing in attack. All you gave to do is look at the abs selection policy for 15 and it is almost always a try scoring machine and the rawness of the two wings to see what proactive selection looks like.
It will be interesting to see what a defensive coach in Farrell. thinks or does with Stockdale. His instinct is to go for the interception and he bites quite a bite. When it works it’s fantastic but when it doesn’t it’s at least 3 points.
I’m not singling our Stockdale but more how our new coach sees it.
Why in this article and others are teams lauded for being able to catch and pass the ball, these players are playing rugby 5 days a week why do we think catch pass is so special, is it because Ireland are so bad at it? Its been killing Munster for 10 years when will we wake up to the basic skills required????
The muppets in the crowd should have shut up and respected the haka. Those clowns over there are just bandwagon jumpers.
@munsterman: Totally disagree, it should be shown as much respect that it deserves and that is f£¥k all!
@munsterman: stupid comment. Had nothing to do with anything