Christian Eriksen: How can athletes continue with ICDs after cardiac problems?

The need for an ICD – which is about half the size of a mobile phone – to be implanted can be caused by a variety of health conditions, including heart failure, coronary heart disease and arrhythmia.

Depending on the disease an athlete is suffering from, it is possible to return to competition.

“Every case is unique,” says Dr. Amanda Lahti, a doctor and researcher in sports medicine.

“It’s a shared decision model – you take input from the club, the players, their agents and medical experts, looking at the risks and potential benefits. Then you make a collective decision whether a player can continue their career or whether they should stop.

“The difficulty with that is the athletes themselves have the final say, and they’re never going to say ‘stop.’ They’re willing to take risks that maybe you or I wouldn’t.”

When Eriksen suffered his cardiac arrest in June 2021, he was playing his club football for Inter Milan in Italy’s Serie A, a minority league that prohibits players fitted with ICDs from competing.

Eriksen made his return to the Premier League, first with Brentford and then Manchester United, where there is no blanket rule, and players must undergo individual tests to assess whether they are fit enough to play.

“I see no risk, no,” He told BBC Sport in 2022. “I have an ICD, so if anything happens, I’m safe.”