The need for an ICD – which is around half the size of a mobile phone – to be fitted can be caused by a variety of different health conditions, including heart failure, coronary heart disease, and arhythmias.
Depending on the exact illness an athlete is suffering from, a return to competition is possible.
“All cases are individual,” says Dr. Amanda Lahti, a doctor and researcher in sports medicine.
“It is a shared decision model – you take opinions from the club, the player, their agent, and medical experts, looking at the risks and the potential benefits. You then take a collective decision about whether a player can continue with their career or if they should stop.
“The difficulty with that is the athlete themselves has the final word, and they will never say ‘stop’. They are willing to take risks that perhaps you or I would not.”
When Eriksen suffered his cardiac arrest in June 2021, he was playing his club football for Inter Milan in Italy’s Serie A, one of a minority of leagues which prohibits players fitted with an ICD from competing.
Eriksen made his return first with Brentford and then Manchester United in the Premier League, where there is no blanket rule, and players must undergo individual testing to assess whether they are healthy enough to play.
“I don’t see any risk, no,” he told BBC Sport in 2022. “I have an ICD, if anything would happen then I am safe.”
