After a cardiac arrest: Christian Eriksen is working on his comeback at youth club Odense BK

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Christian Eriksen

Photo: Mattia Ozbot - Inter / Inter via Getty Images

More than five months after suffering cardiac arrest in the European Championship match against Finland on June 12, the Danish national soccer player Christian Eriksen has returned to training with the ball.

As a spokesman for his youth club Odense BK confirmed to the Reuters news agency on Thursday, the 29-year-old suggested himself to keep fit on the grounds of the Danish first division club.

The club was happy to provide Eriksen with the training opportunities.

The player lives "around the corner" anyway, it is "completely normal" to support him now.

Eriksen played for Odense BK between 2005 and 2008 before the midfielder, who was considered a great talent at an early age, moved to the Netherlands for Ajax Amsterdam at the age of 16.

No future in Italy

How Eriksen’s career will continue is open.

After his collapse on the European Championship pitch in Copenhagen, the playmaker was implanted with a defibrillator that recognizes cardiac arrhythmias and triggers shocks in an emergency.

For his club Inter Milan, with which Eriksen has a contract until 2024, the Dane will no longer be able to play a game: In the Italian league it is forbidden to play with a defibrillator.

In other countries the rules are less strict.

Eriksen's former Ajax teammate Daley Blind continues to do competitive sports despite having a defibrillator and is a regular in Amsterdam.

The Italian sports newspaper "Gazzetta Dello Sport" had recently speculated whether Eriksen could go back to Ajax.

A comeback in a professional league has not yet become concrete.

cev / rtr